What is the Family Responsibility Office (FRO)?

If your family law matter involves child or spousal support you may have heard of FRO. FRO stands for the Family Responsibility Office. It is a government agency that collects court ordered or domestically contracted child and/or spousal support directly from the payor. FRO also documents the amount paid and sends it to the person who is the recipient.  FRO’s role is to ensure those who are obligated to pay support make payments regularly and on time. 

If the parties opt to do payments through FRO it is very important that payments are made directly to FRO and not the recipients of the payments. As FRO documents every payment that is made, if a payment does not go through FRO it could count as a missed payment. Additionally FRO charges $100 every time it needs to make an adjustment to your FRO account. This includes if you decide to pay the recipient directly instead of through FRO. If FRO doesn’t receive payment there are many actions that can be taken on behalf of the person receiving support. These include: 

• Garnishing bank accounts

• Garnishing money received from the federal government (tax refunds, EI, OAS or CPP benefits)

• Reporting to the credit bureau

• Suspending driver’s licence

• Suspending passport or other federal licences such as a pilot’s licence

• Placing a lien on personal property

• Issuing a writ of seizure and sale for property

• Reporting to professional association

• Seizing lottery winnings

• Starting a default hearing, which can lead to up to 180 days of jail time

  
  

If you are gainfully employed FRO may contact your employer to have some of your income deducted to pay support. It is important to start making support payments to FRO as soon as you are obligated. Even though it may take some time for FRO to set up your account, you need to pay interest on late payments. If you are self-employed there are many ways in which you can pay FRO. The amount and date for payment will vary depending on what the court has ordered or what your domestic contract (a Separation Agreement, for example) states.

Those involved in family law matters have the option to opt out of having their support payments made through FRO. Although when payments are not made through FRO it is a lot harder for the receiver to take action when payments are missed or late and could require a lengthy court process. 

DISCLAIMER: The blog sets out a variety of materials relating to the law to be used for educational and non-commercial purposes only; the author(s) of the blog do not intend the blog to be a source of legal advice. Please retain and seek the advice of a lawyer before choosing to act on any information included in the blog.