The Federal Child Support Guidelines:
Step-by-Step

Step 8: dealing with undue hardship

In some situations, the amount of child support set in the child support tables, combined with other circumstances, could create undue hardship for you, for the other parent, or for a child. In those situations, a different child support amount could be determined.

Undue hardship can be claimed in shared, sole or split custody arrangements. In shared custody arrangements however, the guidelines provide enough flexibility to calculate child support amounts so that undue hardship would rarely need to be claimed.

There are two steps to deciding if a parent or child is experiencing undue hardship.

  • 1. Are there circumstances that could cause undue hardship for you, or for the other parent or a child?

    If you ask for a change in your child support amount based on undue hardship, you must show that your circumstances would make it difficult to:

    • pay the required amount, or
    • support the child on that amount.

    Your circumstances could include:

    • unusually high debts from supporting your family before the separation or to earn a living,
    • unusually high costs associated with access to a child,
    • a legal duty to support another person,
    • a legal duty to support a child other than a child of the marriage, or
    • a legal duty to support a person who, because of illness, disability or other cause (including education), cannot support himself or herself.

  • 2. Does the household of the parent asking for the change have a lower standard of living than the household of the other parent?

    Before a claim for undue hardship can be accepted, you must show that the standard of living in your household is not higher than the standard of living in the household of the other parent.

    The guidelines provide one way to calculate the standards of living for the two households. This way looks at the income of every member of both households to compare the two households' standards of living.

How to compare your standards of living

To get a general idea of the standards of living of the two households and how they compare, you may use Worksheet 3 at the back of this booklet. But you can also use another means to compare the standards of living of the two households.

In cases of undue hardship, a new spouse's income is considered in comparing the standards of living of the two households.

If you or the other parent has remarried or is living with a new partner, you must take that person's income into account. This is the only time that you will consider the income of a new partner. It is not relevant in any other situation. (Please see Identify all the members of your household to figure out which household members you should include for the purposes of comparing standards of living.)

If you cannot agree about undue hardship

If you and the other parent cannot agree, you can ask a third party, such as a lawyer or a mediator, to help you. You may also ask a judge to decide.

Undue hardship example

Patrick has sole custody of his and Michelle's three children. Michelle has remarried and has two more children who are both under three. Michelle's new spouse is only able to work part-time. We know that Michelle would pay Patrick $1,176 per month for their children.

Michelle is claiming “undue hardship”. In making a decision on this issue, Patrick and Michelle must look at Michelle's current financial situation to see if the child support amount, combined with her new circumstances, create undue hardship. They must then look at which household has the higher standard of living. If Michelle's household standard of living is lower, she may not be required to pay the full amount of child support.

Note: Special expenses should be calculated based on their necessity in relation to the child's best interests and the reasonableness of the expenses in relation to both parents' means. In Patrick and Michelle's situation, they would know at step 7, special expenses, that the portion of expenses they determined Michelle should pay may not be reasonable in relation to her means. She and Patrick could have agreed at that stage to a different way of sharing the special expenses, and there may have been no need to proceed to step 8, undue hardship.