The child maintenance allowance set by the court in a fixed monetary amount will constitute at least 50% of the annual average of the minimum subsistence level calculated for the previous year by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The Cabinet approved a draft law to amend the Family Code in this regard, IPN reports.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, which is the author of the initiative, said that there is currently no legal framework regulating the indexation of the child support set by a court decision in the form of a fixed amount. This regulatory omission means that the fixed amount of child support remains the same and, over the years, its value does not correspond to the economic realities and child support requirements.

Thus, the purpose of the law is to protect the rights of children where the parents live separately, and the purpose of indexation is to ensure the periodic adjusting of child maintenance set by the court, according to the requirements and economic realities.

The draft law provides that the court's decision, by which the amount of the child maintenance in a fixed monetary amount is set, is enforceable and can be presented to the bailiff if the debtor does not pay the maintenance in the amount adjusted accordingly.

Under the bill, the new provisions enter into force in a month of the date of publication in the Official Gazette. Until the entry into force of this law, the child maintenance set in a fixed monetary amount will be adjusted according to the percentage increase in the value of the annual average of the minimum subsistence level calculated by the NBS. The arrears to the payment of the child maintenance accumulated until the date of entry into force of the new law are not subject to adjusting.