The government did not approve the increase in alimony to half the living wage

Poverty allowance will help poor children

The government does not support the idea of ​​making alimony pay for each child at least half of the regional subsistence minimum. This is stated in the draft response to the initiative of a group of deputies. The relevant Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children’s Issues also opposed their proposed method of solving the problem.

The procedure for determining the amount of alimony is enshrined in the Family Code. In the absence of an agreement between the parents, alimony is collected by the court in the amount of: one quarter of the parents’ earnings for one child, one third for two children, half of the earnings for three or more children. This approach “establishes an uneven distribution of the burden between parents when supporting a child,” because it does not take into account the subsistence minimum for a child in the region where he lives, according to an explanatory note to the bill, signed by five deputies from the New People faction. The following figures are given as an argument. A parent who earns a minimum wage pays child support per child equal to an average of 28% of the child’s living wage (LMW) set by the government. If there are two children, child support for one child will be about 17% of the PM per child, the rest must be provided by the parent with whom the child lives. “In fact, the current version of Article 81 of the Family Code proceeds from the interests of the parent paying alimony, but not the child,” this is contrary to the Constitution, the authors of the initiative believe. They propose stipulating that the minimum level of alimony for each child, in any case, must be at least half the subsistence minimum for children in the region where this child lives. And if the parent who pays alimony, as a result, finds himself completely without money, he “has the right to exercise his right to receive support from the state in difficult life circumstances.”

The draft official response to this initiative was approved on July 3 by the government commission for legislative work. This review (at the disposal of MK) is negative: the government does not support the bill. With a low income of the alimony payer, which is comparable to the size of the subsistence minimum, with this approach, “the alimony payer and his other, in addition to receiving alimony, children, and other dependents will be deprived of the minimum amount of income necessary for life and may fall below the poverty line,” says in the document. Unlike the authors of the bill, who offer low-income alimony payers who are below the poverty line to turn to the state for help, the government believes that parents left with children may well turn to the state for help: the risks of poverty for families with children help to reduce “to a minimum » legally established from January 1, 2023, a single monthly allowance in connection with the birth and upbringing of a child, which combined all previously existing monthly allowances and payments to pregnant women and families with children under 3 years old, from 3 to 8 years old, and from 8 to 17 years old . The right to such a benefit arises if the average per capita income of a family with a child is below one regional subsistence level, and such benefit amounts (depending on the family income) to 50%, 70% or 100% of the regional subsistence minimum.

Without waiting for the government’s response, the profile Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children also expressed its opinion. The very idea of ​​tying the minimum amount of alimony to the subsistence minimum “deserves attention,” the committee said in the conclusion, but “possible risks associated with its implementation in practice” are not ruled out. What exactly are the risks?

Firstly, in a number of cases the proposed norm “will be patently impracticable.” The amount of PM per child in different subjects of the Russian Federation ranges from 11,713 rubles in the Belgorod region (50% of this amount – 5,856 rubles) to 34,859 rubles per month in Chukotka (50% of the PM – 17,429.5 rubles), while the all-Russian The minimum wage from January 1, 2023 is 16,242 rubles per month. This means that if a parent receives approximately the same salary, then he will be able to pay alimony only for one child living in the Belgorod region, and for the second, for example, no longer.

And what if the alimony parent receives unemployment benefits, which now range from 1,500 to 12,792 rubles a month? “Even with the maximum amount of unemployment benefits, a parent who pays alimony will not be able to pay the established minimum of alimony in more than 10 constituent entities of the Russian Federation,” the relevant committee notes. Such people will certainly join the ranks of poor debtors.

In the conclusion of the committee, the following figures are given: 14 regional parliaments and 32 heads of regions supported the bill; 9 heads of regions and 4 regional parliaments did not support or believe that it needs to be improved. The profile committees of the Federation Council spoke out against it.

On May 25, the bill was considered by the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Codification and Improvement of Civil Legislation, and also came to the conclusion that it was impossible to support it. And now the Family Code allows the court to reduce or increase the amount of payment, taking into account the financial or marital status of the parties and other noteworthy circumstances, that is, the court is given the authority to fairly determine the amount of the penalty without leaving the child without maintenance, on the one hand, and the alimony payer – without livelihoods, on the other hand, members of the Council noted.