2. Collect your family income information

Your family income is a combination of your own income, your spouse or partner’s income, and the income of any other adults who contribute to your household income. When you explain your financial situation to your Licensed Insolvency Trustee, the trustee will tell you what should be included in your family income.

Income includes your family’s “take-home pay”, which is the pay you have left over after the taxes and deductions that are listed on your pay stub. Your income also includes:

• RRSP and RESP contributions
• Canada Child Benefits
• social assistance, like OW or ODSP
• pension income

The trustee will subtract the following from your income:

• support payments you pay
• child care expenses
• medical expenses
• court fines

The final amount will be your net family income.

For example, one spouse might earn $1,500 in take-home pay each month and the other spouse earns $2,000. If they pay $250 dollars in monthly medical expenses, the family income will be $3,250.

It is good if your partner cooperates with the trustee. You and your partner should both give the trustee any financial information that is needed. If your partner refuses to give their financial information to the trustee, the surplus income guidelines are reduced by 50%. In most cases, you will end up having to pay more surplus income.

For example, if the normal guidelines let you keep $2,600 per month for a family of 2, and your spouse refuses to cooperate, the guideline will be reduced to $1,300. This can mean that you will have to make larger surplus income payments.