"Child & Spousal Support" covers two legally distinct kinds of ongoing payments after a relationship ends. Child support belongs to the child and is based primarily on the paying parent's income under the Child Support Guidelines table amounts, with additional special or extraordinary expenses (often called "section 7" expenses) shared on top for costs like child care, health needs, or significant extracurricular or education costs. Spousal support works differently: it addresses the financial relationship between the two adults themselves and is never automatic — entitlement has to be established first, and only then does it make sense to discuss amount and duration.
Support doesn't stay fixed forever. Either kind can generally be revisited if circumstances change materially — see changing support and retroactive child support — and unpaid support can generally be enforced through the Family Responsibility Office. Shared or split parenting time can also change how the table amount is calculated; see shared parenting and child support. Support for a child can, in some circumstances, continue past age 18; see support for adult children.
Someone new to this topic generally wants to start by identifying which kind of support applies to their situation — support for a child, support between spouses or partners, or both — since eligibility, formulas, and enforcement mechanisms differ meaningfully between the two. A common misconception is that support amounts, once set, are permanent. Neither type is: both can generally be revisited if income, parenting arrangements, or other circumstances change materially enough, and support that goes unpaid doesn't simply disappear — it can generally still be pursued, including retroactively in some cases. From there, the guides below cover the calculations, special expenses, and what happens when support isn't paid. For a shorter overview, see the Support Insights hub.