It has been an exciting year supporting families at PooranLaw by expanding our firm’s practice areas into family law and education law with the addition of partner, Melanie Battaglia. In addition to providing our new and existing clients with experienced and comprehensive family law services, our team ensures that people with disabilities and their families have access to the legal supports and services that they require, specifically through our representation of children and youth in family, estate and education law matters.
We look forward to continuing to support children and youth with a range of abilities as we move forward into the new year. As part of our quarterly newsletters, we provide important and practical family law information to ensure that our clients stay abreast of issues impacting their family as they navigate separation and divorce, including issues pertaining to supporting family members living with a disability.
We are often asked about the impact of the receipt of child support on a person’s eligibility for the Ontario Disability Support Program (“ODSP”). Child support payments are exempt as income and do not impact a person’s eligibility for ODSP and an ODSP applicant/recipient is not required to pursue child support payments as a condition of eligibility. Likewise, people living with a disability may not ever become financially independent and contrary to what many people think, child support does not automatically terminate upon the child turning 18 years of age. PooranLaw’s summary of recent cases regarding the support for adult children with disabilities can be found here. We will continue to feature important cases in the new year.
