Family Allowance

Family Allowance provides financial assistance to all eligible families who have a dependent child under age 18 who lives with them.

To receive Family Allowance, you or your spouse must meet all the following conditions:

• Be responsible for the care and education of a child under age 18.
• Live or lived with the child before the child was placed or institutionalized temporarily by an institution in the health and social services sector.
• Live in Québec (under the Taxation Act).
• Have one of the following statuses:
  • Canadian citizen;
  • permanent resident;
  • temporary resident who has been living in Canada for the last 18 months;
  • protected person.

You cannot receive Family Allowance if:

• you are a foster family for a child;
• you do not have to pay taxes according to Revenu Québec;
• you are waiting to obtain protected person status (refugee claimant);
• your child is married or lives in a de facto union and his or her spouse received a credit transferred from one spouse to the other.

Consult the When should you file an application or make a change to your file? section for the steps to take based on your situation.

The amount of the Family Allowance payment is calculated twice a year, unless there is a change in the conjugal status (separation or union) and/or a change in the family situation (change in custody of a child). You must inform us of any change to your family situation during the year to receive the payments to which you are entitled and to avoid having to repay overpayments. The Steps to take in the event of a separation and Steps to take during a union sections on our website explain how to inform us of a change in conjugal status. The I share custody of the child section on our website shows the steps to take according to your custody time per month.

The month following the child's 18th birthday, you will no longer receive Family Allowance or, if applicable, the Supplement for Handicapped Children. In addition, if applicable, your child will no longer be entitled to the orphan's pension or the pension for a disabled contributor's child.

If your child under age 18 dies, see the special measures concerning the continued Family Allowance payment for bereaved parents.

It is paid once a year, in July, for the upcoming school year. The amount is the same for all eligible children. For more information, consult our Supplement for the Purchase of School Supplies section.

Two financial assistance programs for handicapped children are offered: the Supplement for Handicapped Children and the Supplement for Handicapped Children Requiring Exceptional Care. For more information, consult the A handicapped child section.

The CalculAide tool allows you to estimate the amount of Family Allowance for a first application or following a change in the family situation.

Calculation of the Allowance based on the family situation

The amount of Family Allowance is determined according to family income and conjugal status, on 31 December of the previous year, as they are indicated on the income tax return sent to Revenu Québec.

Therefore, the amount of Family Allowance payments varies from one family to another. It is calculated each year in May and updated in July based on:

• the number of dependent children under age 18 residing with the family;
• the number of children in shared or sole custody;
• the conjugal status (single or with a spouse);
• family income (amount entered on line 275 of the Québec income tax return), determined based on one of the following situations:
  • the total income of both parents who form a couple;
  • the total income of two spouses who form a blended family;
  • the parent's personal income in the case of a single-parent family.

For more information on Family Allowance amounts, consult our tables.

Calculation of the Allowance based on the cost of living

The amount of the Family Allowance payment is also adjusted to the cost of living each year in January. At the end of December, you can see the new amounts to be paid for the following year in the My benefits section in My Account.

The amount of the Supplement for the Purchase of School Supplies is the same for each eligible child, regardless of family income.

The amounts of the supplements for handicapped children (the Supplement for Handicapped Children and the Supplement for Handicapped Children Requiring Exceptional Care) are the same for each eligible child, regardless of the child's condition or family income.

For more information on the Family Allowance amounts, consult our tables.

Consult your annual notice in June

The new amounts of the payments can be seen each year in mid-June on the annual notice  uploaded to the My documents section in My Account. The notice concerns the amounts you will receive for a period of 12 months, from July to June. It is important to verify the accuracy of the information about the family situation, because the amounts paid vary depending on the number of dependent children and the number of children in shared custody.

In My Account, you can choose the 100% digital option to not miss out on anything thanks to notifications. You will be informed as soon as your annual notice is available in your digital file.

If the information is not accurate, inform us online by filing the applications that correspond to your new financial situation (application for Family Allowance, application for a change in conjugal status, etc.) or by telephone. By doing so, you can ensure that you are receiving all the amounts to which you are entitled and avoid having to repay overpayments.

Annual notice regarding
Family Allowance

If your notice is at zero, this means that we have not received your income tax return information from Revenu Québec. We have not been able to calculate the new amount of Family Allowance you are receiving. The financial assistance is therefore suspended until we receive the information from Revenu Québec. Once you have received your notice of assessment from Revenu Québec, you must allow 20 working days before receiving Family Allowance again, depending on the new annual calculation. Please note that Family Allowance payments can be made retroactively only for a maximum period of three years.

Family Allowance is paid four times a year, that is, in January, April, July and October, on the scheduled payment dates. To receive monthly payments, you must file a Change in Frequency of Family Allowance Payments. In that case, payments are made on the first working day of each month.

Avoid postal delays and lost cheques. Sign up for direct deposit to receive your payments securely and change your banking information easily.

Payment methods

Family Allowance and supplements are paid to one person per family. Rules are used to identify who will receive payments for the family:

• Following a first birth in Québec, Family Allowance is granted to the mother.
• When the parents are both mothers, Family Allowance is paid to the mother who gave birth.
• When the parents are both fathers, Family Allowance is paid to the biological father or to the father requesting the financial assistance.
• When the family expands or a new application is filed for the same family, for example in the case of adoption, Family Allowance is granted to the person who is already receiving payments for that family.
• When the parent applies for Family Allowance, for example if he or she has recently arrived in Québec or if his or her family and/or conjugal situation changes, the financial assistance is granted to the person who files the application.

Spouses can request a change of beneficiary within the same family.

Child in shared custody

If the child is in shared custody, Family Allowance is paid to both parents at the same time, without interruption, and according to the frequency chosen by each parent (every three months or each month). We consider that a child is in shared custody when the child lives alternately with each parent between 40% and 60% of the time per month. The I share custody of the child section on our website specifies how to inform us of a change in custody.

Blended family

For blended families, if both spouses are eligible for Family Allowance:

• the person with the greatest number of children will receive the payment;
• if both spouses have the same number of children, the payment will be made to the person who has the youngest child. However, if the youngest child is the child of both spouses, payment is made to the mother.

If only one person is eligible for Family Allowance, payment will be made to him or her.

Retroactive payment

Family Allowance payments can be received retroactively if all the defined requirements are met. Therefore, you will receive amounts equal to the payments you would have received for a maximum period of 11 months as of the date on which we received your application.

Amount to repay

A change in your family situation may have an effect on the amounts to which you are entitled. If you received overpayments, you must repay them. The repayment will be made from your next payments and will be equal to:

• 50% of your next payments if your annual family income is less than or equal to $50 000. We could withhold more than 50% of those payments if the balance of the amounts to be paid is not sufficient to repay your debt. In certain cases, we could withhold more than 50% of your payments, even if your income is less than or equal to $50 000;
• 100% of your next payments if your annual family income exceeds $50 000.

If you are no longer eligible for Family Allowance and you received overpayments, you will have to repay them, as indicated on the letter you received.