{"id":50673,"date":"2022-08-25T20:27:54","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T00:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orders.cleo.on.ca\/?post_type=publications-page&#038;p=50673"},"modified":"2025-06-17T13:05:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T17:05:51","slug":"what-is-spousal-support","status":"publish","type":"publications-page","link":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-is-spousal-support","title":{"rendered":"What is spousal support?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Spousal support is money paid by the partner who earns more to the partner who earns less.<\/p>\n<p>Spousal support applies to partners who are married. It also applies to partners who are not married as long as they have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>lived together for at least 3 years, or<\/li>\n<li>have a child together and were in a relationship of &#8220;some permanence&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The court looks at a number of things when deciding if spousal support must be paid. These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the needs and financial situation of each partner<\/li>\n<li>the length of the marriage or relationship<\/li>\n<li>the role each partner played during the marriage or relationship, for example, if one of you stayed at home to look after the children<\/li>\n<li>the effect of these roles on each partner and their current financial position<\/li>\n<li>whether your partner signed an immigration sponsorship agreement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The amount of spousal support is usually decided using the <strong>Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines<\/strong>. It gives low, middle, and high ranges of support amounts to consider.<\/p>\n<p>Even if you get spousal support, it does not usually last forever. Both partners are expected to be able to take care of themselves financially after some time. For example, your partner might have to pay support while you take a course or attend training. But then the amount of support might decrease over time, and then end.<\/p>\n<p>If your partner gets income assistance, you are not likely to get an order for spousal support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-50673","publications-page","type-publications-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is spousal support? - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-is-spousal-support\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is spousal support? - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spousal support is money paid by the partner who earns more to the partner who earns less. 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