Parents must continue supporting their children financially even if they have new family responsibilities. An existing support order remains in effect until the end date set out in the order or until it is changed by a court. Under the Federal Guidelines, a court may order a different child support amount if a claim for undue hardship is successful. Circumstances that may cause undue hardship include the obligation to support children from a new relationship. There are two steps in determining if a parent or a child is experiencing undue hardship: You must first show that your circumstances would make it very difficult to pay the required amount of child support. Both households would then be compared to see if the household of the parent asking for the child support change has a lower standard of living than the household of the other parent. Under the Divorce Act , you might have to pay child support if you stood in place of a parent to that child, which is also called being " in loco parentis ". In such cases, judges have discretion to set an appropriate amount of child support, taking into account the amount set out in the Federal Guidelines and the legal duty of any other parent to support the child. Child support and child access are separate issues. Your child still needs financial support even if you have no contact with that child for whatever reason. Similarly, access to a child should not be denied just