Including Pension Income for Child Support not Double Dipping: Alberta Court of King’s Bench
June 16, 2026
A judge in the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta recently made a ruling in a child support order regarding the inclusion of pension income in the calculation of child support.
In Abdessemed v. Eckensviller the parties had divorced and were revisiting a child support order that had not been updated since 2019. The 2019 order required that the parties recalculate their guideline incomes on May 1 of each year and adjust child support accordingly. The Applicant requested the updated child support order to include the Respondent’s pension income as part of his total income to calculate child support owed.
The Respondent argued that his pension income should not be included in his income for child support payments as it had already been divided as part of the family property settlement in the divorce proceedings and claimed the Applicant would be “double-dipping” if she also received child support from the remaining amount of his pension.
The Court reviewed the case law presented by the Respondent, such as Howard v Howard, 2020 ABQB 292 and Boston v Boston, 2001 SCC 43, and noted that these were spousal support cases that did not provide authority in the child support proceedings.
In her ruling, the judge relied on Section 16 of the Federal Child Support Guidelines which defines income for child support purposes as the “Total income” in the T1 General form. Pension income is income included within “Total income” in the T1 General form. Thus, the Court concluded that the Respondent’s pension income should be included for purposes of determining his child support obligations.
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