To whom are child assistance payments made?

Child assistance payments are made to only one person in a family. Spouses can agree to ask for a change of beneficiary in the family.

Certain rules are used to determine which spouse will receive the payments:

• for the first application, if the information is provided automatically by the Registrar of Civil Status, child assistance payments are made to the mother.
• for the first application, if made directly by a person, child assistance is paid the person who applied.
• for subsequent applications, child assistance is paid to the beneficiary who is already designated in the existing file.

Shared custody

Child assistance payments are made to both parents at the same time, without interruption, according to the frequency of payments chosen by each parent (quarterly or monthly). The Régie considers that a child is in shared custody when the child lives alternately with each parent between 40% and 60% of the time each month.

A blended family

• If both spouses are eligible, child assistance is paid to the spouse with the grea test number of children.
• If both spouses are eligible and they both have the same number of children, child assistance is paid to the spouse with the youngest child. However, if the new couple has a child, the payments will be made to the mother of that child.
• If only one of the spouses is eligible, that spouse will receive the child assistance payments.