Planned amendment to family law in Poland concerning the so-called immediate alimony
After two years, the Ministry of Justice returned to the idea of amending the family law in the field of the so-called immediate alimony. The Ombudsman and the Children’s Ombudsman appealed to introduce this solution.
On the website of the Polish Parliament, a parliamentary bill amending the provisions of the Family and Guardianship Code and certain other acts has been published. In this draft, among other changes, there are provisions on the introduction of the so-called immediate alimony. This institution would consist in accelerating the alimony procedure by introducing a new type of procedure to the Code of Civil Procedure: “Prescriptive alimony procedure” and preventing a situation in which a child waits for a long time for financial support.
The amount of immediate alimony would be determined in advance on the basis of the conversion rates referred to the first article of the aforementioned draft of bill. The variables that would be taken into account are:
- twice the minimum remuneration for work for the next year divided by the sum of number 2 and the fertility rate announced by the Central Statistical Office for the previous year (conversion amount),
- number of children (one child – 38% of conversion amount, two children – 34,5%, three children – 31%, four children – 27,5%, five and more children – 24%).
For example, in 2021 the amount of alimony for one child would be PLN 675 per month. Currently, the Parliament is working on the draft and it is not known when these provisions will come into force. It must be noted that those numbers mentioned above may change in the legislative process.