What is alimony? Should an unemployed person pay?
When we talk about child support, we mean a certain amount that the father (or mother) pays monthly for his maintenance. The size of the payment can be calculated as a percentage of earnings and other income. It all depends on the number of children to support after the divorce. A quarter of the average salary is paid for one child, a third for the second, and half for the third and subsequent children. Payments can also be established in a fixed amount of money. Its amount is established by the court based on the financial and marital status of the payer.
Remember how the cat Matroskin said in the voice of the great Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov :
“To sell something unnecessary, you must first buy something unnecessary, and we don’t have money.”
In the situation with child support, the situation is approximately the same. It is clear that in order to support at least someone, you need to have a more or less stable income, from which, in fact, the assigned amount will be paid. Lawyer Ruzanna Khanamiryan emphasizes that, according to the Family Code of the Russian Federation, parents have the obligation to support their minor children, regardless of their employment status.
We will figure out how much a non-working father should pay and how to achieve justice.
Federal News Agency (FAN)
How to deprive a father of parental rights if he does not pay child support?
One of the measures taken against a child support defaulter may be deprivation of parental rights. However, there must be sufficient grounds for this, such as malicious evasion of alimony payments , as well as evasion of one’s responsibilities in raising children.
Malicious evasion refers to systematic and deliberate failure to fulfill parental responsibilities. Its signs may be:
- concealment of one’s real income or other property that may be subject to foreclosure;
- change of place of residence or work without notifying the bailiff;
- providing false information about your property status;
- failure to pay administrative fines for late alimony payments.
The main evidence for deprivation of parental rights can be a court verdict imposing criminal liability for malicious evasion of child support payments. In order to deprive a negligent father of parental rights, it is also necessary to prove that he does not care about the physical, spiritual and moral development of the common child, does not visit him, does not take walks with him and does not give him gifts.
After deprivation of parental rights, the father will lose the right to personally raise the child, to communicate with him, and to receive maintenance from him in the future. In this case, the debtor will still need to pay child support until he reaches adulthood.
Minimum child support in 2021
Yuri Kapshtyk , lawyer, mediator for family disputes, says that if the father does not officially work, the minimum amount of alimony in 2021 could be more than seven thousand rubles.
“There is such an already established practice: even if a person is not employed, then the calculation of alimony debt is done based on Federal legislation,” explains Yuri Nikolaevich and especially notes that this amount varies depending on the region, since the standard of living in Moscow and, for example, the regional center in the Penza region is significantly different, which means the amount of benefits should be different.
Experts emphasize that the lack of official income in no way relieves the father of responsibility for supporting his child. In any case, the accumulated debt will be collected after the financial situation of the debtor is corrected. This is due to the fact that many unscrupulous alimony providers, in order to hide the level of their income, deliberately work under temporary employment contracts, which are not officially reflected anywhere. They also deliberately occupy low-paid positions by agreement with the employer, receiving a minimum salary on paper, thereby hiding their actual income.
Since one cannot rely on the conscience and moral principles of negligent fathers in this situation, in recent years the practice has developed of calculating minimum alimony based on the normative minimum level.
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How to get child support from the state if the father does not pay?
Some regions can independently create additional support programs for children whose one parent evades paying child support. Such measures include, for example, increased child care benefits.
However, these bonuses are paid only if the family is registered as low-income . Moreover, additional payments are relatively small and usually range from several hundred to several thousand rubles.
In some cases, you can receive other additional social support measures from the state. For example, if a father for one year , and the bailiffs cannot find him, then he can be declared missing in court. In this case, the child will be assigned a survivor's pension.
In the article “Recognizing an alimony debtor as missing,” we tell you in what cases and how you can start receiving a survivor’s pension instead of alimony.
You can also receive payments from the state if alimony was not collected due to the fault of the bailiffs . In this case, according to Part 3 of Art. 19 Federal Law No. 118 of July 21, 1997, alimony debt can be recovered from the treasury of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation. However, in this case, the recoverer must provide undeniable evidence that it was the action or inaction of the bailiffs that prevented the collection of funds.
Example. If the bailiff did not block any bank account of the debtor (although he should have done so), and the defaulter withdrew a large amount of money from this account, which could be collected, then the bailiff’s guilt can be suspected. However, in any case, the truth will be established during the trial.
Also in April 2021, bill No. 680786-7 was introduced on the creation of an alimony fund . According to the terms of the bill, money for children from the fund will be paid in the event that it was not possible to obtain child support from the father within six months. However, it was never accepted.
Measures to be taken against defaulters
Having received the court decision, the mother needs to contact the Federal Bailiff Service. Ruzanna Khanamiryan explains that after this, employees of a government agency take over the case, who go to the place of actual residence or registration of the debtor, and also search for accounts and property that may be subject to inventory, seizure and subsequent sale. Despite the fact that professionals are dealing with the problem, the lawyer strongly recommends that applicants not relax, personally monitor the process and demand the imposition of appropriate sanctions if the bailiffs do not do this themselves.
State enforcement agents have various methods of debt collection in their arsenal. Among the most effective coercive measures, Yuri Kapshtyk names the imposition of restrictions on travel outside the country. If the amount of debt exceeds 10 thousand rubles, the right to drive a vehicle is deprived.
“Probably, this measure is the most painful and effective for them (non-payers - FAN note), because many alimony workers who are considered unemployed drive expensive foreign cars registered in the name of relatives and dummies, and then the bailiff takes it and deprives them of the opportunity to use their own transport" ,” notes FAN’s interlocutor.
Legal assistance
“Extracting” alimony from a man who is trying with all his might to evade it is not an easy task. At a minimum, it requires consistent and continuous “pressure” on the defaulter by all possible legal means.
As a rule, a woman who works and raises children alone does not have enough strength, time, or patience for such actions. Often she makes several unsuccessful attempts at intervals of several years, and then the children reach adulthood.
Meanwhile, you can collect unpaid alimony for a maximum of three years, after which the statute of limitations expires.
An experienced family lawyer can help in this matter. A lawyer who has had to deal with cases of this kind more than once knows all the levers of influence on an unscrupulous alimony payer, and if there is even the slightest opportunity to get money from him, your child will get it!
If you need an experienced lawyer who can get the case off the ground and successfully complete it, you can also find him using our Prav.io portal.
Does official status matter?
Ruzanna Khanamiryan says that labor status does not matter. In any case, parents are obligated to support their minor children, regardless of whether they are officially employed or not. If a person nevertheless joined the labor exchange and was officially recognized as unemployed, then alimony will be calculated from his unemployment benefit, especially since for the first three months it is calculated based on the previous salary.
Yuri Nikolaevich warns that if the amount of the benefit turns out to be significantly lower than the alimony obligations, the debt will continue to accumulate and will be collected later.
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Important!
The amount of alimony is calculated based on all the citizen’s income, including creative fees, one-time part-time jobs, etc. If the bailiff receives information that the defaulter has additional sources of income, he will collect the required amount from them as well. More often, the main informants in this case are ex-spouses.
“As a rule, the ambitions of the mother, who does not receive what is rightfully due to her, have a very strong impact. She tries in every possible way to find out where her ex-husband receives additional money, and informs the bailiff so that he takes appropriate measures,” notes Kapshtyk.
If the person who is obligated to pay alimony is a non-working disabled person or a pensioner, then payments for the child are assigned based on the pension.
Documents to court
In order to file a lawsuit and receive a writ of execution for alimony, you need to prepare a package of documents, namely:
• a copy of your passport;
• a copy of the divorce or marriage certificate;
• certificate of family composition;
• a copy of the child's birth certificate;
• an application to the court, which will clearly describe all the points and reasons for the appeal.
After receiving the writ of execution, it must be taken to the bailiffs, writing a statement that the document be accepted for production. If after this the ex-husband refuses to pay alimony, then the bailiffs will deal with him.
Is a peaceful solution to the problem possible?
Experts say that it is quite possible to settle the matter peacefully and that this path is always the most preferable and least traumatic for both parties. Former spouses can agree on a monthly benefit in a fixed amount of money that suits both participants in the process, and notarize the agreement reached. Yuri Kapshtyk recommends adding a clause to the document stating that the issue can be reconsidered if, for example, the father’s income increases significantly and it turns out to be more profitable to receive alimony based on a percentage of earnings.
Be that as it may, no matter what path you choose, a competent specialist who will explain to the parties their rights and obligations will help you reach a consensus.
Reasons for non-payment of alimony
Before taking the measures described in this article, we recommend that you find out the reasons for non-payment of alimony from the payer. It happens that the alimony obligee does not pay alimony for (valid) reasons beyond his control:
- force majeure circumstances,
- health problems,
- dismissal from work,
- other factors influencing his financial situation.
In this case, the correct solution would be to negotiate peacefully and resolve the conflict.
If the child’s father does not pay child support intentionally (for an unjustifiable reason), we recommend that you resort to the actions described below that will help collect child support, the resulting debt and the penalty for it.
