Is it necessary to pay child support if the mother does not allow her to see her child?

Child's communication with parents

The child has the legal right to communicate with both parents. At the same time, it does not matter whether he was born in marriage, or was born as a result of an extramarital relationship, whether he lives together with his mother and father, or whether one of them lives separately from the baby.

If paternity has been established, no one has the right to prohibit the father from seeing his child. Both father and mother have equal rights towards their children and bear equal responsibilities towards them.

Even if one of the parents lives separately from the child, he still has all the legal grounds to take part in his upbringing and education.

What are the current ways to deal with persistent defaulters?

Almost none. Moreover, if a non-payer of alimony sends insignificant amounts at least several times over a long period, then a criminal case will not be initiated against him. If he pays back a thousand rubles twice a year, then he is no longer a malicious defaulter. To date, the problem of alimony in the country has not been solved at all. And the bailiffs cannot find debtors, they cannot force them to work. Of course, the state is concerned about this issue. The Moscow City Duma is again raising the issue of the alimony fund, so that the state pays alimony to children if fathers maliciously evade or do not pay for at least 2-3 months. And the state will force such men to pay it money, with all the fines, penalties and other legal consequences.

We have a law “On Combating Corruption”. When the property of children, parents, wives, third parties, friends, and so on is revealed, and all this property is confiscated in favor of the state. But in order to provide for children, for some reason, our bailiffs, unfortunately, do not have such an opportunity, although they already deny entry to debtors, and take away their rights, and force them to work, and fine them, but all this is like sand in water. Of course, the collection rate has increased. But in our country today there are more than 100 billion alimony arrears. This is the budget of an entire city. If the president declared a decade of childhood, then we should probably somehow ensure that our children, who in 10-15 years will go into the army to repay their debt to the state, engage in professional activities for the benefit of the same state, grow and develop in normal conditions.

The minimum amount of alimony payments is 14,600 rubles in Moscow. But the child must be fed, clothed, and sent to school. And what will this money be enough for? Thank God, kindergarten and school are not so expensive. But additional education costs money: clubs, languages, tutors. Today, the school does not take on teaching responsibilities; it provides the material. And how the child learns it, the teacher doesn’t care. Then the child goes home to do his homework, and the mother must sit and check, but if she is a single mother and she is not paid child support, then she has to work three jobs, when should she take care of the child, if she attracts a tutor, then that too costs money.

Now the Moscow City Duma was considering the Moscow budget. And a proposal was received from a number of deputies to redirect from this budget part of the money that was allocated for the development of the microdistrict, where citizens are protesting against the demolition and cutting down of trees and construction. So that this money does not go to the construction of objects at the expense of the city that no one needs, but to the alimony fund. It’s good that the deputies are concerned, but this amount is not enough. 14 thousand a month is not enough for a child. If we decide to help children and pay them child support, then it makes sense to increase the amount. After all, even if these 14 thousand are paid, this is still not a solution to the issue.

Legal grounds for a ban on communication

According to the general rule established by the RF IC, one of the parents does not have the right to prohibit the other parent from communicating with their child. However, if in court it is possible to prove that such communication can harm the child’s mental state, health or moral development, the parent living separately will be denied meetings.

Guardianship authorities are always involved in such disputes. They examine the living conditions of the child and his parents. Based on the results of the research, the guardianship authorities prepare an appropriate conclusion for the court. For example, such a conclusion may contain a recommendation to prevent a parent from communicating with a child in connection with drug use or alcoholism. Such conclusions may also indicate that the child is unable to spend the night with the parent due to poor living conditions.

The final decision in controversial situations is made by the court. However, as practice shows, courts are guided by the recommendations of the guardianship authorities set out in their conclusions.

Is it possible to pay more child support?

But some men, being on good terms with their child and ex-wife, often ask the question - is it possible to pay more alimony? Of course, this is possible if the payer so desires. He can:

• transfer money to the child or his legal representative;
• make gifts;
• open an account and transfer money to it on the condition that his child will use the funds upon reaching adulthood;
• provide other financial assistance.

If everything is completed correctly, the recipient will not have to pay any taxes. After all, if the payment is formalized as alimony, then it is not subject to tax (personal income tax has already been paid). If the funds go as a gift to a child, then such gifts between close people are also “amnestied” by tax legislation.

Due to frequent updates to legislation and the legal uniqueness of each situation, we recommend obtaining a free telephone consultation with a lawyer. You can ask your question by calling the hotline number 8 (800) 555-40-36 or write it in the form below.

Establishing a procedure for communication through the court

If the mother refuses to enter into an agreement with the child’s father, the order of the latter’s communication with the baby can be determined by the court.

To do this, the child's father must prepare and submit an application to the court. The dispute is considered with the participation of both parents, as well as guardianship authorities. If the child’s mother interferes with his communication with his father, contrary to a court decision

The responsibility of a mother who prevents a child from communicating with his father is established by the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. Thus, a single violation of a legal obligation entails liability in the form of a fine of up to 3,000 rubles, a repeated violation - in the form of a fine of up to 5,000 rubles or arrest for up to 5 days.

Legitimate cases of non-payment of alimony

If a parent does not pay child support, there must be good reasons for this. A person is released from any liability in the following cases:

• official loss of work, but subject to registration with the employment service in order to find a new option;
• the debtor was seriously ill (there was a doctor’s report) and spent an impressive amount of money on treatment;
• over the last 4 months, minimum alimony payments have been recorded;
• presence of delays in wages at official work;
• the delay in alimony payments occurred due to the fault of the financial organization.

All these cases require evidence; only then can they be considered in court as facts justifying the absence of alimony payments.

Voluntary content

If the child's father does not object to paying child support, he can do so based on a written agreement with the child's mother.

In such an agreement, the parties must establish:

1. The amount of alimony (not lower than ¼ (25%) of income for 1 child, 1/3 (33%) for 2, and ½ (50%) for 3, 4, 5 or more children);
2. Frequency of payments (one-time, monthly, quarterly, etc.);
3. The procedure for making payments (transfer in cash, postal transfer, transfer by bank transfer);
4. Responsibility for violation of terms of payment of alimony, as well as other provisions of the agreement;
5. Other conditions that do not contradict the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

The agreement must be notarized. It is from this moment that it acquires legal force, as well as the force of an executive document.

The procedure for challenging paternity

To initiate a procedure to challenge paternity, the alimony payer must collect the established package of documents and also go to court.

To cancel paternity, the person obligated to pay alimony must act according to the following scheme:

1. Collect the necessary package of documents, which may include not only mandatory papers, without which the application simply will not be accepted, but also documents proving the absence of relationship.
2. Pay the state fee, which in accordance with Art. 333.19 is equal to 300 rubles.
3. File a claim with the district court at the defendant’s permanent registered address. It is noted that the plaintiff is allowed to appeal to the district court at the address of the registry office where the child was registered.

After filing a statement of claim, within five days, the court accepts the statement of claim for consideration or rejects it with mandatory justification for its decision. After a short period of time, a preliminary hearing is scheduled and then the main hearing. As a general rule, the period for consideration of a claim by the court should not exceed two months, but in practice the duration of the proceedings may extend beyond two months.

On average, cases challenging paternity are considered within 1-3 months from the date of filing the claim, depending on the workload of the court.

Valid reasons for exemption from payments

The law provides for the possibility of exempting the father from paying child support. However, for this, very compelling reasons are needed.

Such grounds include:

• Difficult financial situation of the parent;
• Serious health problems;
• Other reasons resulting in the impossibility of paying money for child support.

At the same time, the inability to see a child is not specified in the law as grounds for exemption from child support. Judicial practice also does not contain such decisions.

Legislative concept of debt

To fully understand the consequences of what will happen if you do not pay the required amount of alimony, you need to know the basic aspects and concepts.

Debt formation is an initial factor resulting from evasion of required alimony payments. Its sources can be situations:

• Child support payments are established in the form of a fixed sum of money, but they are not transferred in favor of the child. Debt is calculated by multiplying the “hard amount” itself by the number of months in which there was no payment;
• Alimony is set as a percentage of the debtor’s official earnings, but he either does not work or has no other income. The amount of debt in this case will depend on the average monthly salary.

There is also the concept of a penalty, which can be collected from the defaulter in the amount of 0.5% of the total amount of debt for each day of delay in payments. It falls into the category of additional measures that are used to encourage the debtor to make timely and regular payments.

Loss of parental rights

The loss of rights to a child can be caused not only by evasion of his financial support, but also by other grounds provided for by law, including:

• Chronic illness of a parent with drug addiction or alcoholism;
• Child abuse;
• Abuse of parental rights.

Loss of parental rights occurs only by court decision. However, if such a decision is made by the court, then the parent loses all his rights to the child, including the right to communicate with him.

At the same time, the obligation to pay alimony remains until the child turns 18 years old, unless before this period the child is adopted by another person.

When can meetings be prohibited?

According to Articles 65 and 73, the court can limit parental rights, effectively prohibiting them from meeting with children, if:

1. The presence of a threat to a growing person. A parent's mental disorder, alcoholism, drug addiction, indecent or dangerous behavior towards others or the child himself are sufficient grounds for restriction or complete deprivation of rights. Until the father proves the injustice of the court order or his safety, meetings will be impossible.
2. Non-payment of alimony. A father who is trying with all his might to avoid payments for child support established by law may be either limited in his parental rights or completely deprived of them. In this case, it is also unlikely that you will be able to see your son or daughter.

Court hearings of this kind are held with the participation of both parties, and also, without fail (Article 73, part 4) with the participation of representatives of the prosecutor's office and the guardianship and trusteeship authority.

There are no other grounds for a legal ban on communication with children.

The father should remember: neither the mother, nor her current husband, nor her other relatives have the right to prohibit communication in an arbitrary manner, one-time or forever.