Falling Behind on Support Payments in Ontario: FRO Arrears and Your Options

Missing a single support payment doesn't trigger every enforcement tool FRO has overnight, but it does start a process that gets harder to unwind the longer it continues. If you've fallen behind — or you can see it coming — understanding how FRO arrears build and what happens in response puts you in a much better position than waiting to see what happens.

What Counts as Arrears

Arrears are the difference between what a support order or agreement required and what was actually paid, added up over time. Once a case is registered with FRO, arrears accumulate automatically on the file whenever a payment is missed, late, or short — there's no grace period built in that erases a missed payment once it's late.

A common misunderstanding is that a single missed payment simply "resets" once the next payment is made on time. It doesn't — the shortfall from the missed payment stays on the file as arrears even after payments resume, and it keeps accumulating with each further missed or partial payment until it's specifically addressed.

How Enforcement Tends to Escalate

There's no single fixed dollar amount or fixed number of missed payments that automatically triggers each stage — FRO exercises judgment based on the file, and how quickly things escalate can vary.

What a Payor Can Do Before It Escalates

• [ ] Contact FRO proactively rather than waiting for enforcement to happen. FRO has some discretion to discuss arrangements, especially with a payor engaging in good faith.
• [ ] Keep paying what you can. Partial payment slows how quickly arrears grow, even if it doesn't solve the underlying problem.
• [ ] Get legal advice if your income has genuinely changed. A support order can potentially be varied through a motion to change if your circumstances have shifted in a real and lasting way — but arrears already accrued generally aren't erased just because a variation is later granted.
• [ ] Don't assume arrears can be forgiven informally. Once FRO is enforcing a file, resolving arrears usually needs to go through a proper process rather than an informal understanding between the parties.
• [ ] Never withhold parenting time as leverage, or stop paying because parenting time isn't happening. Support and parenting arrangements are legally separate issues, each enforced through its own process — mixing them up doesn't help either problem and can create new ones.

What a Recipient Can Do

If you're owed support and payments have stopped or become unreliable, FRO is generally the right first call — particularly if the case isn't already registered, or was previously withdrawn from FRO's enforcement services. Keeping your own records of what's been paid and when can also help if there's ever a dispute about the arrears figure.

It also helps to resist the temptation to handle a missed payment entirely informally, even with a cooperative co-parent. A quiet verbal understanding about "catching up later" doesn't show up on FRO's records and can make it harder to establish exactly what's owed if the informal arrangement later breaks down.

Frequently asked questions