It did not work out voluntarily: the father will pay higher child support for his daughter by court order

Publication date: September 13, 2023

To protect the child’s rights, the court decided to increase the amount of alimony to be paid by the father. This is the second time that the case described in this story has been brought to court. Four years ago, the man also refused to help the family voluntarily. A successful case from the practice of lawyers of the NGO “Youth Initiative Center”.

To the “Youth Initiative Center”, Mariana*, a Chervonohrad, Lviv oblast resident, asked whether she had the right to change the amount of child support for her daughter.

The woman said that in 2019, she had already gone to court to recover alimony from her ex-husband in the fixed amount of UAH 3000 for the child’s maintenance, as the father refused to help voluntarily. The court ruled in favour of the mother.

Since then, according to Mariana, the situation in the family has changed. All the problems were exacerbated by the war, and over the past four years, prices for food and clothing have risen, and the subsistence level for a child of the appropriate age has increased, increasing expenses.

• According to the mother, the child’s father currently serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. His financial situation has improved significantly, but he still refused to help the family voluntarily, says the organisation’s lawyer, Andrii Mytsak.

Having familiarised himself with the situation, the lawyer prepared a statement of claim to the court to change the method of child support recovery, namely from a fixed amount of money to ¼ of all income, but not less than 50% of the subsistence level for a child of the appropriate age.

• As a result, on August 31, 2023, the Chervonohrad City Court of Lviv oblast ruled to satisfy the claims to recover from the child’s father ¼ of all income. Still, not less than 50% of the subsistence level for a child of the corresponding age instead of UAH 3000, the lawyer summarises.

The legal framework that guided the lawyer

Article 192 of the Family Code of Ukraine (FCU) provides that the amount of alimony determined by a court decision or 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 marital status, deterioration or improvement of the health of either of them and in other cases provided for by this Code.

Under Article 183(1) of the Family Code of Ukraine, the court determines the share of earnings (income) of the mother or father to be collected as child support.

Under Article 182 of the Family Code of Ukraine, when determining the amount of alimony, the court takes into account the health and financial situation of the child, the health and economic situation of the alimony payer, the presence of other children, the disabled husband, wife, parents, daughter, son; other circumstances of significant importance.

According to Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2023”, the subsistence minimum for children aged 6 to 18 years is UAH 2,833 starting from January 1.

*Name and other personal information have been changed for ethical reasons.

The material was created with the support of the international charity platform GlobalGiving and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The publication’s content is solely the responsibility of the Legal Development Network.

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