Collection of alimony for minor children

collecting child support has always been considered a difficult task. Lucky are those families who managed to come to an agreement and peacefully agree on the amount, but the majority have to deal with evasion of payment of alimony by one of the spouses. If you need legal assistance regarding alimony reduction (Lviv) , then the lawyers of the law firm will easily help you in this matter.

How is alimony collected?

According to the current legislation of Ukraine, there are two ways to collect child support:

• through the courts;
• by voluntary agreement of the parties, with notarization.

Most often, the parents fail to reach an agreement peacefully, and then the decision on the amount of child support remains at the discretion of the court. It is this authority that has the right to establish the amount of alimony and issue a writ of execution for the recovery of funds.

Meanwhile, the development of legislative acts does not stand still, and today there are already changes in the collection of alimony. According to the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts to Improve the Protection of the Child’s Right to Proper Maintenance” No. 4928, amendments are made to the Family and Civil Procedure Code, the Law “On Court Fees”, namely:

• determination of the legal order of alimony as the property of the child;
• deviations by the court from the basis of equality of shares of spouses in common property in the event of one of them evading their obligations to support children;
• elimination of the grounds that are used by alimony payers when delaying the consideration of cases of alimony collection;
• taking into account the expenses of the alimony payer, for which the latter has not proven the source of the funds for their financing, when determining the amount of alimony;
• increasing the minimum amount of alimony that is subject to recovery from the alimony payer;
• liability for late payment of additional expenses for the child;
• Collection of alimony in summary proceedings at the request of the alimony recipient: 1/4 of the alimony payer’s income for one child, 1/3 for two children, and 1/2 of the alimony payer’s income for three or more children, but no more than 10 subsistence minimums for a child of the corresponding age if the alimony amount is determined as a percentage of the mother’s or father’s earnings, or 50% of the subsistence minimum for a child of the corresponding age if a claim is made for indexation of alimony awarded in a fixed monetary amount;
• Use of alternative jurisdiction in cases involving additional child support expenses and alimony;
• Use of alternative jurisdiction in cases involving additional child support expenses and alimony;
• Exemption of the plaintiff from paying the court fee in cases involving the collection of additional expenses, penalties (forfeits) for late alimony payments, indexation of alimony, and changes to the method of collection.

what should be considered first? Previously, the plaintiff (the alimony recipient) had to go to court, enduring all the rigors of the courtroom, to obtain long-awaited alimony payments. After all, if the defendant fails to appear in court for the first time, the hearing is usually postponed, and ultimately, obtaining a decision required more than six months.

Today, this long-suffering procedure is being replaced by more positive developments: from now on, a court decision on alimony can be obtained within three days, or a week at most. The simplified procedure in summary proceedings means there is no need to go to court; simply submit an application, and the court issues a decision immediately, without a court hearing. After this, the court’s decision is sent to the enforcement agency, and the entire decision is enforced.

Furthermore, the plaintiff has the option of filing an application in a court not at the defendant’s place of residence, or at their own, without paying a court fee. However, if the alimony payer disagrees with the court’s decision and the amount is unaffordable, they must now go to court themselves and prove why and how they see the alimony payments being made. And from now on, this procedure is their headache.

It’s worth noting that this Law not only ensures immediate dispute resolution and alternative jurisdiction, but also changes the collection rate from 30% to 50% of the subsistence minimum.

As you know, the cost of living for children under 6 years old is 1, 426 hryvnia from May 1, and 1, 492 hryvnia from December. Accordingly, the minimum alimony for a child of this age will be at least 713 UAH from May 1 and 746 UAH from December 1.

For children aged 6 to 18 years, the cost of living is 1, 777 hryvnia, from May 1 of the current year, and 1, 860 hryvnia, from December 1, that is, the minimum for child support can be 889 hryvnia for a child of this age, and 930 hryvnia from December for a child of this age.

however, if the plaintiff (alimony collector) believes that the defendant can and is obliged to pay a large part for the maintenance of his children, then he should still turn to classical court proceedings and prove his opinion on this matter with justification, and this is a completely different story.

It should also be noted that if a debt arises due to the fault of a person who must pay alimony by court decision, the recipient of alimony has the right to collect a penalty (penalty) in the amount of one percent of the amount of unpaid alimony for each day of delay. The amount of the penalty may be reduced by the court, taking into account the financial and marital status of the alimony payer. If the alimony payer is a minor, the penalty is not paid.

When executing enforcement proceedings to collect alimony from other family members and relatives, the requirements of the same legislative acts are applied as in the general collection of alimony, but with the specifics set forth in the Family Code of Ukraine.