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Government

Ministry of Attorney General

What is the FMEP? Why should I enroll?

The Family Maintenance Enforcement Program (FMEP) is a service of the British Columbia Ministry of Attorney General. The FMEP is responsible under the Family Maintenance Enforcement Act for monitoring and enforcing all maintenance orders and agreements that are filed with it. That means the FMEP will:

  • calculate, receive, record and forward payments to the person receiving maintenance (called the recipient), and
  • take action, if and when necessary, to try to ensure the person who is supposed to pay maintenance (called the payor) makes the required maintenance payments.
You should enroll in the FMEP if:
  • your former spouse is often late in making support payments, or has fallen behind in making payments
  • your former spouse has moved and you cannot locate him or her to find out about your payments, or
  • you would like someone else to keep track of your support payments for you.
The fact that an order is enrolled with the FMEP does not automatically mean that the payor has a poor payment history. Even in cases where a payor has been making all payments on time, some people decide to enroll with the FMEP simply because it's easier to have the FMEP keep a record of their support payments.