When it comes to alimony in Ukrainian society, it is most often about children and the duty of the father or mother to provide financially for a minor child. But the law also has another face – a quiet, almost invisible paragraph that allows parents in adulthood to sue their own children and demand financial assistance. Sometimes – for old age, sometimes – for treatment, and sometimes – simply because there is no other means of livelihood. Ukrainian legislation stipulates that adult sons and daughters are obliged to support disabled parents if they need help. For some, this is a moral obligation, for others it is a red flag of a toxic relationship, and for the court it is a legal fact that can become the basis for enforcement.
What do you need to know if you have been sued for child support? What rights do parents have, and what rights do children have? Can you refuse to pay? Who decides what is a “need for maintenance”? IA “FAKT” asked these questions to the lawyers of the “Repeshko and Partners” bar association, who provided answers and practical advice.
In our practice, such cases are becoming more and more frequent. Court statistics record a steady increase in lawsuits in which elderly parents request child support payments. On the other hand, there is also an increase in the number of court decisions where the court refuses, recognizing parents as unworthy due to long-standing indifference, cruel treatment or long-term lack of participation in the upbringing of their children.
According to statistics, approximately 20% of elderly people live in Ukraine, who are over 65 years old – this is every fifth citizen of the country. Up to 7% of the total population is the number of disabled people in the country. Taking into account these figures, as well as the fourth year of hostilities and the scale of humanitarian needs, the state is not always able to properly and sufficiently provide for the material needs of these categories of citizens, because the vast majority of them have chronic diseases and the need for expensive medical drugs. One of the options for improving the financial situation of these persons is to receive money from their children.
The Family Code (SC) of Ukraine has a separate chapter that regulates the issue of parents receiving alimony from children. An adult daughter or son is obliged to support parents who are unable to work and need financial assistance.
The Civil Code of Ukraine provides for the following conditions for receiving alimony by parents from children:
- the origin of the child from the mother, father (blood relationship) or the existence of other legally significant connections between them (in particular, adoption);
- incapacity of the mother, father (that is, they are persons who have reached the retirement age established by Article 26 Law of Ukraine “On mandatory state pension insurance”or persons with disabilities);
- mother’s, father’s need for financial assistance.
As you can see, the law does not say anything about the financial status and health status of the children or the child in such a case. And therefore, this is not a significant criterion and condition for exemption from parental maintenance. However, the law separately states that if the mother and father were deprived of parental rights and these rights were not restored, the obligation to maintain the mother, father of the daughter, son, regarding whom they were deprived of parental rights, does not arise. That is why, if you now have a minor child and are hesitating whether to deprive the other parent of parental rights, the fact that in the future such a father will be entitled to receive child support may be the last argument that will prevail in favor of such a decision, especially when such a father leads an immoral lifestyle.
In addition to the above, as well as for child support, there is also an option for parents to receive funds for additional expenses. So, in addition to paying alimony, the daughter and son are obliged to participate in additional expenses for the parents caused by serious illness, disability or infirmity.
Both alimony and additional funds for the maintenance of parents can be paid in two ways: voluntarily or in a compulsory manner through the court. Voluntary order can take place both by verbal agreement between the parent and the child, and by concluding a notarized contract in which it will be written exactly in what amount and for what period of time financial assistance is provided, as well as sanctions for non-compliance with the specified conditions, as well as indexation according to the existing inflation.
If there is no bilateral agreement on this issue, the only option left is to go to court. However, in addition to deprivation of parental rights, there are also separate cases when children are freed from the maintenance of their parents.
A daughter or son may be exempted by the court from the obligation to support the mother, father and the obligation to participate in additional expenses, if it is established that the mother, father evaded the fulfillment of their parental duties, namely – the daughter, son are exempted by the court from the obligation to support the mother, father and the obligation to participate in additional expenses, if it is established that the mother, father did not pay alimony for the maintenance of the child, which led to the debts, the aggregate amount of which exceeds the sum of the corresponding payments for three years, and such debts are outstanding at the time of the court’s decision to determine the amount of alimony for parents.
We would like to note that in exceptional cases, the court may award alimony to a daughter or son for a period of no more than three years. Non-payment of alimony for child support, which led to the emergence of debt, the total amount of which exceeds the amount of the corresponding payments for three years, is confirmed by a certificate issued by a state executive service body, a private executor in accordance with the procedure established by law. It is worth knowing that the exemption from payment of parental alimony is closely related to the payment of child alimony by parents. That is why we recommend that you carefully collect and save all the documents that you come across during your life – one day they may come in handy.
In exceptional cases, the obligation to support one’s parents may rest not only on an adult daughter or son. So, if the mother or father is seriously ill, a person with a disability, and the child (before reaching the age of 18) has sufficient income (earnings), the court may issue a decision to collect funds from him or her once or within a certain period of time to cover the costs associated with their treatment and care.
Regarding the amount of alimony for parents. The court determines the amount of alimony for parents in a fixed monetary amount and (or) in a share of earnings (income), taking into account the financial and family status of the parties. When determining the amount of alimony and additional costs, the court takes into account the possibility of receiving support from other children, against whom no lawsuit has been filed for the collection of alimony, the wife, husband and parents. The ¼ rule, 1/3 share do not apply here, because unlike a minor child who has only two parents and no income, parents can usually have several children, have the right to demand maintenance from their parents, the second spouse and have their own income in the form of an old age or disability pension, or from renting real estate or land shares and also receive a subsidy.
Therefore, when submitting an application to the court, it is necessary to carefully justify the amount that you wish to receive from the child, taking into account all the circumstances. After all, for example, a situation is possible when the father’s pension is UAH 20,000, and the child’s salary is UAH 16,000. In this case, there will be no question of collecting alimony at all, because the key point, which is spelled out in the law, is the parents’ need for help.
What documents do parents need to collect in order to successfully go through the court procedure for collecting alimony? The list is approximate, because it is finally decided depending on the situation, but in any case, to file a claim for alimony, you need to have:
- a copy of the passport and tax code of the claimant (father of the child);
- a copy of the child’s passport and tax code (if available);
- a copy of the child’s birth certificate (or court decision on adoption);
- a copy of the child’s marriage certificate or an extract from the act record in case of a child’s surname change at marriage;
- a copy of the certificate on the composition of the plaintiff’s family;
- copies of documents that confirm the claimant’s inability to work (retirement certificate, ID card with a disability or the decision of the expert commission for assessing the daily functioning of a person to establish a disability group/certificate of the MSEK);
- a copy of the certificate from the Pension Fund about the amount of pension received by the plaintiff;
- copies of certificates from the hospital about the existing diagnosis/diagnoses, prescribed treatment, hospitalization, etc.;
- copies of receipts for medicines purchased as prescribed by doctors, for medical examinations, tests, purchased vouchers for sanatorium-resort treatment;
- copies of documents (if available) that confirm the financial status of the child (salary certificate, extract from the Real Estate Register about the purchase or sale of real estate, a copy of the technical passport for the vehicle, etc.);
- a copy of the certificate from the Automated System of Executive Proceedings and the Unified Register of Debtors to confirm that the child is not subject to compulsory wage garnishment, and therefore there is an opportunity to provide assistance to the parents;
- a request to call witnesses, indicating their names and addresses, who can confirm the health of the parents and their need for assistance.
If the child does not intend to comply with the court decision voluntarily, then the mechanism of forced recovery through the state executive service is activated. In addition, evading the payment of alimony for the maintenance of parents may result in the following types of liability:
- administrative (Article 183-1 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses);
- criminal (Article 165 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
- civil (Article 1224 of the Civil Code of Ukraine).
If an adult child does not pay alimony for the maintenance of the parents, the law provides for clear responsibility. First of all, administrative. It occurs in the case when there is a debt that exceeds the amount of payments for six months from the moment of presentation of the executive document for execution. In such a situation, the court can assign community service lasting from 120 to 240 hours. This means that a person must actually work off the debt — within the community, for minimal pay, doing unskilled work.
If after that alimony is not paid again, and the person does not take any measures to repay the debt within two months from the moment of the first community service, this is already a repeated offense. In such a case, the court can once again impose an administrative fine — community service, but for a period of 240 to 360 hours. In fact, this is almost a full year of work without a normal salary.
If the evasion of alimony payments is malicious, that is, systematic, deliberate, long-term and such that it ignores all previous decisions, this is already grounds for criminal liability. In this case, the person can be:
- fined from 17,000 to 34,000 hryvnias;
- or sentenced to community service for a period of 80 to 120 hours;
- or to corrective works for a period of up to one year;
- or be under probation supervision for up to two years;
- or even be subject to restriction of freedom for the same period.
The same act committed by a person previously tried for a criminal offense provided for in this article shall be punished by community service for a period of one hundred twenty to two hundred and forty hours or correctional labor for a period of up to two years, or probation supervision for a period of two to three years, or restriction of freedom for the same period.
We remind you that even a fine in such a case has a consequence – the presence of a criminal record, which makes life much more difficult in many cases.
There is a third type of consequences — civil law. It is enshrined in Article 1224 of the Civil Code of Ukraine and concerns the right to inheritance. It states: adult children (or adopted children) who evaded the obligation to support their parents do not have the right to inheritance by law. But this must be determined by the court. Also, the court can remove a person from inheritance if it is proven that he refused to help his father or mother, who were in a helpless state due to old age, illness or disability.
Thus, even if the child is the only heir, but has not helped his mother or father for years, he may lose the right to everything that his parents leave after their death: apartment, house, land, pension, accounts. The court can transfer the inheritance to other persons or the state.
Therefore, we recommend that children take a very responsible approach to their responsibilities. Child support is not a formality and not just a moral obligation. The law takes this seriously: evading help for elderly parents can result in a criminal record, years of forced labor and loss of inheritance. But there is an even more important consequence: our own children are always watching how we behave with our parents. And sooner or later, this example will backfire.
