The National Alliance, which is in the opposition in the Saeima, has submitted amendments to the Maintenance Guarantee Fund Law, proposing an increase to the amount of state-guaranteed child support paid to children from the Maintenance Guarantee Fund.
According to the party, since 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers dictates two different minimal maintenance amounts – one that has to be provided by each parent, and the second one, which is state-guaranteed. The former is tied to the minimum wage and thus regularly updated, while the amount of state-guaranteed child support is set at a lower level than the amount of child support to be provided by the parent, and it is not indexed.
Section 179 of the Civil Law provides that the duty of parents is commensurate with their abilities and property status to maintain the child. The article states that there is a minimum size that a parent must provide for each of his or her children, regardless of his or her ability to maintain the child and the condition of the property. The legislator has delegated the determination of the minimum amount to the Cabinet of Ministers, stipulating that the minimum monthly wage and the age of the child established in the country must be taken into account.
On the basis of this delegation, the Cabinet of Ministers has determined that the minimum maintenance that each parent must provide to each child from birth to the age of seven is 25% of the minimum monthly wage established by the government, and from the age of seven to 30%.
The law adopted in June 2004 stipulated that child support to be paid from the MGF in the amount which, on the basis of Section 179 of the Civil Law, according to the Cabinet of Ministers.
Due to the limited budget funds during the financial crisis, the government submitted a draft law to the parliament, which provided for a reduced amount of maintenance from the MGF from 2010 to 2012. National Alliance emphasizes that at that time, the annotation stated that the reduced amount of child support to be paid will be paid only within the specified three-year period, but then the right to receive child support from the MGF funds for child support in the amount provided for by the law before the introduction of the temporary norm will be ensured.
In the post-crisis period, the condition was renewed that maintenance should be paid from the MGF in the amount determined by the Cabinet of Ministers on the basis of Section 179 of the Civil Law. As noted by members of the opposition, in order to save budget funds, in 2017, within the framework of draft budget laws, changes to the law on the payment of guaranteed maintenance were adopted in a reduced amount: in 2018, in the amount of 23% and 27.5% of the minimum wage, but in 2019, in the amount of 24% and 28.5%, respectively.
According to the party, from 2020, the minimum amount of maintenance specified by the Cabinet of Ministers should have been renewed.
However, in 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted a draft law on the delegation of the determination of the payment of guaranteed maintenance to the government. The bill was submitted as part of a budget package and, according to the National Alliance, it was supported without properly assessing its social dimension.
According to the National Alliance, the amount of state-guaranteed child support to be paid from the MGF each year falls further behind the economic situation and salary changes in the country, and this year is a third lower than the minimum amount of child support for parents established on the basis of Section 179 of the Civil Law.
“As a result, relative and actual poverty of households where children receive funding from the Maintenance Guarantee Fund increases, as well as the risk of exclusion of children in these households,” notes the party.
The MGF was once set up to pay child support even in cases where a parent is not fulfilling their responsibilities and does not participate in child support. The State then tries to recover the funds paid from the MGF from these parents.