The issue of alimony payment after the child reaches the age of majority is relevant for many Ukrainian families. Often, parents believe that from the age of 18 their financial obligations are automatically terminated, however, the legislation of Ukraine provides for cases when the payment of alimony can continue.
IA “FACT” turned to the lawyers of the “Repeshko and Partners” Bar Association with a request to comment on in which cases an adult child has the right to receive alimony, what conditions for this are provided by legislation and how judicial practice affects the resolution of such issues.
As the people say: “Those parents who did not feed their child until retirement are bad.” Although this is only a joke, but like any joke, there is some truth in it. Some men frivolously count on the fact that somehow alimony will be paid for a child up to the age of 18, and then the child is already an adult and will have to support himself in the future. But the state, which is interested in qualified and knowledgeable staff, laid down Article 198 in the Family Code (SC) of Ukraine: “Parents are obliged to support their adult daughter and son who are unable to work, who need financial assistance, if they can provide such financial assistance.
The main emphasis is made in Article 199 of the Civil Code of Ukraine: “If an adult daughter and son continue their studies and in this connection need financial assistance, the parents are obliged to support them until they reach the age of twenty-three, provided that they can provide financial assistance.”
Duty of parents to support adult children
It should be noted that the obligation of parents to support an adult daughter or son who continues to study after reaching the age of majority arises under the mandatory combination of the following legal facts:
- the origin of the child from the parents or the presence of another legally significant relationship between them (adoption);
- reaching the age of a daughter, a son, which exceeds 18, but is less than 23 years;
- continuation of children’s education (the form of education can be both full-time and part-time);
- the need of children in connection with this in material assistance;
- availability of parents to provide such assistance (parents themselves must be able to work and have such earnings that would allow them to support themselves and their adult child).
But this norm does not apply automatically. In the event that a court decision or a court order has already been passed to collect alimony for a child before reaching the age of 18, as soon as the child reaches this age, the court decision becomes invalid, and the enforcement service closes the enforcement proceedings. Therefore, in order for a child who is studying after the age of 18 to continue to receive alimony, it is necessary to appeal to the court again precisely with a claim for the collection of alimony for an adult child.
At the same time, the court decision stipulates that alimony is charged until the child’s 23rd birthday, or until graduation. In the event that education is terminated before the child reaches 23 years of age, alimony payments are also terminated. On the basis of the court’s decision, a writ of execution is issued, which is the basis for applying to the executor to receive the awarded alimony.
In general, you need to know that alimony payments for an adult child can be made in two ways: voluntarily and by court decision.
Voluntary procedure for payment of alimony
One of the parents can submit an application at the place of work, the place of payment of pension, stipend for deduction of child support from his salary, pension, stipend in the amount and for the period specified in this application. Such a statement can be withdrawn by him at any time.
On the basis of such a statement of one of the parents, alimony is deducted no later than three days from the day established for the payment of wages, pensions, and scholarships. It is on the basis of such an application of one of the parents that alimony can be deducted even when the total amount to be deducted on the basis of the application and executive documents exceeds half of the salary, pension, scholarship, as well as if alimony is already charged to another child. This is an option when the court is not involved at all in resolving the issue of alimony payments.
There is another option provided by law, but in fact it is never implemented in practice. A person in whose favor alimony has been awarded can independently submit an application with an executive letter about the deduction of alimony from the salary, pension, scholarship or other income of the payer of alimony directly at the place of payment of alimony to the payer of salary, pension, scholarship or other income. Based on the application of such a person, alimony is deducted from the salary, pension, stipend or other income of the payer of alimony in the amount specified in the enforcement letter and transferred to the person in whose favor alimony is awarded, at his address or to the account specified in the application.
The amount of alimony is determined by mutual agreement between the parties, but under no circumstances can it be less than that stipulated in the second part of Article 182 of the Civil Code of Ukraine (50 percent of the subsistence minimum for a child of the appropriate age).
Judicial procedure for payment of alimony
It is important to understand that the following have the right to apply to court with a claim for alimony recovery
- the parent with whom the adult child lives. At the same time, the child is indicated in the lawsuit as a third person;
- the child himself. At the same time, in the lawsuit, the parent with whom she lives is indicated as a third person.
A claim for the recovery of alimony is submitted to the court or at the registered place of residence or stay of the defendant or the plaintiff.
Plaintiffs are exempted from paying the court fee during the consideration of the case in all court instances for submitting a claim to the court for the recovery of alimony (Clause 3 of the first part of Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine “On Court Fees”). In this case, alimony can be collected in a fixed monetary amount or in a share of the earnings (income) of the alimony payer
It should be noted that lawyers have recently been fond of collecting alimony precisely in the share of earnings (income) in connection with the following. First of all, writing down a clearly stated amount of money in the claim, you must justify why exactly you want to receive it, why UAH 8,000, and not UAH 6,000 or UAH 5,000. Secondly, and this is the most important thing – if the parent from whom alimony is collected does not work officially, he is charged alimony based on the average salary in the district in which he lives.
Statistics show that as of 2025, the average salary in Ukraine has already reached UAH 22,000 and continues to grow. The same norm applies in the case when alimony is collected from an individual entrepreneur who, by law, is not required to keep primary records of his activities, and therefore it is impossible to determine his real income. It applies to citizens of Ukraine who receive earnings (income) in a state with which Ukraine does not have an agreement on legal assistance, which is quite relevant nowadays, when a significant part of the country’s citizens is abroad, and it is not always known who and where.
Regarding the collection of a portion of the earnings (income) for alimony, the general rule remains – for one child, the collection is in the amount of one quarter, for two children – one third, for three or more children – half of the earnings (income) of the payer of alimony, but no more than ten subsistence minimums per child of the appropriate age for each child.
There are still important nuances that you should be aware of. Child support is awarded by a court decision from the day the lawsuit is filed. Alimony for the past time can be awarded if the plaintiff submits to the court evidence that he took measures to receive alimony from the defendant, but could not receive it due to the latter’s evasion of their payment. In this case, the court can award alimony for past time, but not for more than ten years (Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Although this norm exists in the law, in practice the courts hardly use it, because for this it is necessary to prove that measures to obtain alimony were taken, and the phrase: “And I told him more than once that the child has nothing to eat” cannot serve as evidence in court.
However, as with minor children, in the case of coming of age, the general rules for collecting alimony continue to apply. Namely, the amount of alimony, determined by a court decision or an agreement between the parents, may be subsequently reduced or increased by a court decision at the request of the payer or recipient of alimony in the event of a change in the financial or family status, deterioration or improvement of the health of one of them, and in other cases provided for by the Code of Ukraine. Also, the parent with whom the child lives and the parent who lives separately from the child, with the permission of the guardianship authority, can conclude an agreement on the termination of the right to alimony for the child in connection with the transfer of ownership of immovable property (residential building, apartment, land plot, etc.).
When determining the amount of financial assistance, the court must take into account:
- actual and valid need of the child to provide her with material assistance,
- the cost of education, the cost of textbooks and travel to the educational institution, the cost of living in a dormitory or rented apartment at the location of the educational institution;
- the state of health of the alimony payer, his financial and family status, the presence of the alimony payer’s property, cash and
- other relevant circumstances.
In the event that an adult child is, for example, on full material, food and financial support at the expense of the state budget of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, these circumstances do not give him the right to claim alimony on the basis of Article 199 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. If it is established that a child is studying at a university by correspondence, but does not work anywhere and at the same time has the possibility of employment, the need to provide financial assistance to such a child may be in doubt.
There is a decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine in which it is emphasized that even if a father or mother is a disabled person of the II or III group, but there are no recommendations regarding the inability to work in their health certificate, that is, they are not recognized as unable to work, but only certain restrictions in work are recommended, this is a basis for collecting alimony from such parents for an adult son or daughter who continues their education. In addition, a certificate from the Pension Fund of Ukraine on receiving a disability pension in itself is not a confirmation that this is the defendant’s only source of income.
It should be emphasized that the child’s stay on vacation during studies is not a reason to release parents from the obligation to support adult children who continue their studies, since the vacation time is included in the period of study.
Evidence that substantiates claims for the recovery of alimony
When applying to the court in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, evidence is attached that substantiates the claims (confirming the right to collect alimony), namely:
- a copy of the passport (of the applicant and the child);
- a copy of the family composition certificate or an extract from the register of the territorial community on the registration of the claimant and the child;
- a copy of the court decision on divorce;
- a copy of the child’s birth certificate;
- certificate from the educational institution that the child is studying;
- a copy of the order on enrolling the child in an educational institution;
- a copy of the contract on the provision of educational services;
- salary certificate of one of the parents from whom alimony is expected to be collected (if available)
- data from the Unified register of debtors regarding the person from whom alimony will be collected;
- data from the Automatic system of enforcement proceedings regarding the existence of enforcement proceedings against the future payer of alimony;
- a copy of the court decision or order on the collection of alimony under the age of 18 (if available).
And finally, our purely practical recommendation – you should not believe promises to transfer alimony tomorrow or the day after tomorrow voluntarily. If this has not happened in a month, this is a 100% reason to go to court.
