Is alimony paid and withheld from pensions?

What does the UK say about alimony?

Article 80 of the Family Code obliges all parents to provide for their children who are under eighteen years of age.
In the event of a divorce, the former spouses can independently decide what the amount of alimony should be and in what form it will be paid. If you cannot reach an agreement, you can resort to the help of the court. The court will not only force the ex-spouse to provide money for child support, but will also determine the amount of this assistance. There is no single amount required to be paid per child. The amount of alimony directly depends on the income of a particular person. So, for one child, 25 percent of income is taken, for two - 33. For three or more children, half of the income is withheld. If a person has arrears in paying alimony or has caused harm to the health or property of the second spouse, up to 70% is taken from his income. The amount of payments may be increased if the child needs additional funds - for example, to treat a serious illness.

A citizen is required to make payments from all income, that is, this applies not only to wages. If the father is retired, interest will be deducted from the pension salary.

If, during a divorce, children are “divided” between parents, one of whom is less wealthy, then the second parent is also required to pay a certain amount every month. If a child is in an orphanage or adopted, according to Article 84 of the RF IC, parents are still required to pay child support to his guardian or adoptive parents. Article 85 adds that parents are obliged to support not only minor children, but also disabled children who have already reached the age of 18 and need help.

Nuances

Is alimony taken from the pensioner’s income? The Family Code states that pensions are also included in the income from which alimony is collected. It should be noted that payments are made not only from the old-age pension, but also from its other types:

• Cash received for disability. Even if a person has a disability, he still must pay child support.
• Pension benefits for military personnel and military veterans.
• Pension payments for employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Important! Payments are calculated not only from the basic pension, but also from various allowances. That is, cash is collected from the entire amount that the pensioner receives. All these points are prescribed in Russian legislation. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that a person can hide some income so that they are not collected from them.

Military personnel who retire after serving a certain number of years must give their children money for their maintenance, according to the law. If a military man has another, but civilian job, where he has already worked and quit, then payments will be collected from both of these amounts. That is, you won’t be able to pay from just one of these rewards. There is no need to worry about whether alimony is withheld from the serviceman’s pension; the same principle applies in this situation. The baby cannot be left without payments and can count on part of his parent’s funds. Payments from military personnel are also collected through the courts.

Alimony from pensions

If the RF IC does not list the types of income for which alimony is collected, it is supplemented by Decree of the Government of Russia dated June 18, 1996 No. 841. According to its second paragraph, alimony must be paid from all types of pensions, taking into account their indexation and allowances.
Pensioners who have not left work are required to pay alimony along with their pension and salary. Article 5 of Law No. 166-FZ names the following types of pension payments:

• assigned to disabled people;
• due to persons who have lost their breadwinner;
• due for length of service;
• assigned to people when they reach retirement age.

In some cases, the amount of alimony payments may be reduced:

1. if a child whose age is at least 16 years old has his own sources of income (for example, if he works part-time or receives a scholarship);
2. when the financial or marital status of the former spouses changes;
3. when the parent paying the money develops serious health problems that require large expenses.

Payment amount

Alimony from a pension can be paid:

• on a voluntary basis;
• By the tribunal's decision.

In the first case, the parties enter into an appropriate agreement and, by agreement, determine the amount of payments. It can be as high as you like, but should not be very low - not lower than the level established by law. You can focus on:

• provisions of the RF IC, which establishes: for 1 child you can recover 25% of income, for two - 33%, for the third and subsequent ones - 50%;
• living wage.

In the second case, as a rule, alimony is paid in an amount of at least 0.5-1 times the minimum wage.

By court decision, alimony payments are also made in shares of income or in a fixed amount. However, alimony from a well-deserved pension is retained in shares. It is convenient and advisable to keep them in a fixed amount if the pensioner is disabled, his level of income is low, and the amount of expenses is large.

It is somewhat easier to collect alimony from a working pensioner. He has at least 2 sources of income. Therefore, sometimes the penalty is even excessive.

When alimony is collected from old-age pensions and wages, the payer of the funds can apply to the court with a request to reduce the amount of funds withheld.

However, the recipient of the funds can provide a certificate of alimony and prove that this is the family’s only income. Then the court will have to look for a balance of interests more carefully.

Collection of child support from pensions cannot be carried out in an amount exceeding 50% of income. Exceptions: the need to repay debts on these payments, payment of funds for the maintenance of the child’s mother. In such cases, the court may increase the amount of assessments up to 70%.

Alimony from payments due to old age and length of service

According to Law No. 400-FZ, a pension is a monthly salary that the Pension Fund pays to an elderly person in order to compensate for lost wages. It applies to any 60-year-old man and 55-year-old woman (from 2020 this age will begin to rise). Retirement age does not relieve a person from the obligation to support his children, since a pension (both old age and length of service) is one of the types of person’s income.

The maximum percentage of withholding funds for pensioners is 50%. Thus, receiving 15 thousand rubles monthly, a pensioner is obliged to pay a maximum of 7.5 thousand rubles for the maintenance of children.

If a pensioner gets a job, he needs to notify the bailiff or the second parent (if there was an agreement between them) as soon as possible, since the amount of his income has changed. If he has not done this, the second parent with whom the child lives can submit a request to the Pension Fund or the tax office and find out whether insurance premiums are paid for him. If it turns out that your ex-spouse is employed, you need to go to the bailiffs and submit an application.

The long-service pension implies earlier departure from work for rest for some categories of citizens. According to Law No. 166-FZ, it is available to federal civil servants, military personnel, test pilots and astronauts. After leaving the family, teachers and doctors, as well as employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and military personnel, including military veterans, are required to pay alimony. Moreover, the latter are usually entitled to free medicines and medical services, including dentures, free travel (both road and city, and rail, water and air) to and from the resort, benefits on utility bills, etc. All this is taken into account when determining the amount of alimony. Alimony is also collected from various allowances, for example, for military merits.

Normative base

What legal acts answer the question: is alimony withheld from a pension? Firstly, this is Art. 80 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, which establishes that child support is paid as a share of income. True, the law does not specify what types of income are voluntarily collected or collected. But this has been known since 1996, when Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 841 came into force. It is this document that specifies the list of income from which money is withheld to meet the needs of a minor. Pension is included in this list. But not just any one. You can and should deduct funds for maintenance from your old-age pension. But there are other types of pensions:

• on disability;
• for loss of a breadwinner;
• according to length of service.

What can you say about them?

Long service pension

This type of cash payments is assigned to persons who served in state, let’s say, paramilitary structures: in the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc. In fact, a long-service pension is similar to old-age payments, only it is assigned many years earlier, since serving for the benefit of the homeland in the police, for example, is more dangerous and difficult than working in an office. Therefore, it is clear that child support is calculated on a general basis from former police officers and military personnel who have retired to the reserves. Alimony from a pensioner of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is calculated in the same shares as maintenance funds from a person working at a factory, for example.

Disability pension

Alimony from a pensioner with a disability is collected on a general basis, with some peculiarities. Everyone pays: disabled people of group 3, second and first. The peculiarity is that the court, at the request of the payer, can reduce the amount of payments.

According to the law, groups 1 and 2 are given to those people who cannot work. But the state provides them with financial resources. On the other hand, it is obvious that most of the income is spent on treatment and rehabilitation. Consequently, the court has grounds to set alimony from a disability pension as permissibly low.

If a disabled alimony recipient has found the strength to work, then, in some cases, the court may relieve him of the obligation to pay alimony from his pension. Only a portion of your salary will be withheld.

Survivor's pension

As the name of this type of pension suggests, it is assigned to those who have irretrievably lost a person who had a dependent pensioner. Is alimony taken from survivor's income? No. And the logic here is undeniable. You cannot collect money from a person who has already lost the opportunity to earn an income or has suffered a bereavement.

Alimony from a pension for disability and loss of a breadwinner

Like all citizens, disabled people must pay child support for their minor children.
Even people with disabilities of the first two groups who cannot provide for themselves are no exception. Most often, if disability pension payments are the only source of income for a person with a Group I or II disability, a fixed sum of money is assigned as alimony. Sometimes its size can be reduced if most of the disabled person’s funds are spent on paying for his treatment and he does not have the opportunity to earn money. Dependents left without a breadwinner are the only ones who may not pay alimony from pension payments. But this only applies to the survivor's pension. These funds are allocated from the federal budget of the country, and payments to them come from the local budget. This rule is regulated by the second paragraph of Resolution No. 841.

Withholding alimony from pension: in what cases?

Obtaining the right to a pension does not relieve one from responsibilities to the child. This provision does not give rise to discrepancies and is explained in special Government Decree No. 841 (07/18/1996) as amended in PP No. 332 (04/09/2015)

From the point of view of legislation, funds for the maintenance of a minor or incompetent child after 18 years of age are calculated taking into account the following types of income of citizens:

• official salary of a working pensioner;
• pensions (including regular cash payments to military pensioners, combatants, upon reaching a certain age, various payments through the Ministry of Internal Affairs);
• cash transfers due to temporary disability;
• income received as a result of doing business;
• additional income from the rental of real estate or movable property;
• dividend payments (if there are securities);
• copyright income;
• any bonuses for length of service and additional payments to pensions, pensioner compensation;
• contributions received in the form of financial assistance.

Almost any receipt of funds to a pensioner's account requires consideration in the calculation of alimony payments, with the exception of benefits for the loss of a breadwinner and related financial assistance, any other assistance from the federal budget received at a time, in connection with the negative impact of natural disasters, disasters, damage from emergency situations .

Cases where alimony is not withheld also include collections from funds received in the form of humanitarian rewards or as part of assisting in the detection of terrorist acts.

The basis for receiving alimony, as in standard situations, will be the receipt of a writ of execution ordering deductions in favor of your minor child from any labor and unearned income.

Collection of payments for children

If the former spouses cannot agree on child support payments on their own, or one party refuses to negotiate, the other may file a lawsuit. To do this, you must bring the following documents to the court:

• parents' passports;
• divorce or marriage certificate;
• a certificate taken from the place of residence confirming that the child lives with the applicant;
• birth certificate of the child (or children);
• a certificate of income of both the applicant and the respondent;
• other papers as necessary (for example, a certificate of the defendant’s disability group).

If an application is submitted for payment of alimony in favor of an adult child who is incapacitated and disabled, documents will be needed that confirm the incapacity for work and that the family is in need.

After the court sets the order and amount of payments, you must contact the court office for a writ of execution. After this, you can go to the branch of the Federal Bailiff Service located in the area where the payer lives. The bailiffs decide to initiate enforcement proceedings by issuing a procedural resolution. This document is then sent to the applicant and the debtor, who is called upon to fulfill the obligation within 5 days. If this does not happen by the debtor’s free will, compulsory collection measures are applied to him. There is another option. The parent with whom the child or children remain can contact the Pension Fund (if the pensioner is also officially employed, then also his employer) - the employees will calculate how much the pension payments should be. Based on the writ of execution, a certain amount will be withheld monthly from the pension salary, which will begin to be credited to the applicant’s account.

You must take your passport and bank details with you to both departments, to which the money will be received.

Where to apply for collection?

To obtain a writ of execution that gives the legal right to formally collect funds, you can use the following collection procedure:

1. According to a peace agreement concluded between the parents, certified by a notary office, in an amount not less than the amount that could be established by law.
2. According to a court decision and a further writ of execution, which contains a requirement to make monthly payments of alimony until the child reaches 18 years of age.

See additionally: up to how many years alimony is paid.

If citizens of working age organize the payment of alimony through their employer by submitting a writ of execution to the accounting department, then to collect from the pensioner, they contact the Pension Fund (territorial office at the place of residence of the defendant, the payer). The basis for registering a lien will be a document indicating the initiation of enforcement proceedings by bailiffs.

It is possible to submit documents for execution through the FSSP service, or directly to the Pension Fund of Russia branch. In addition to the writ of execution, you will need to submit supporting documents of identity, papers on marital status, for children, certificates with details of future deductions (bank details and current account number).

After the transfer of the writ of execution, monthly, simultaneously with the direction of funds in favor of the pensioner, alimony transfers will be withheld and sent to the child.

The scheme of action, both when applying directly to the Pension Fund of Russia or the Social Insurance Fund, and through bailiffs, requires a preliminary consideration of the case in court, if achieving a compromise by mutual agreement is not possible.

It is possible to obtain a writ of execution for forced collection only on the basis of a written application from the second parent or legal representative of the child to the court. The place of filing the application is the magistrate's court at the address of the defendant or plaintiff.

The main documents of the parties are attached to the application, and the text of the application itself is filled out according to the sample that is located on the information stand of the magistrate’s court, or downloaded from an Internet source.

Download a sample statement of claim for the collection of alimony for a child (children) (18.3 KiB, 372 hits)

Sample claim for the collection of alimony in a fixed sum of money (513.3 KiB, 216 hits)

Sample claim for the collection of alimony in a fixed sum of money (35.0 KiB, 304 hits)

Copies of personal documents of the parties (payer, recipient, child), as well as documents confirming the income of the parties and indicating marital status, are used as attachments to the application.

After making a decision, the court prepares a writ of execution, which is then submitted to the bailiff service at the defendant’s registered address. It is necessary to take into account that from the moment of filing the application to the court until the organization of regular deductions, it will take about 2 months, however, the accruals will be calculated based on the date of filing the application with the judicial authority.

An FSSP employee, accepting documents, initiates enforcement proceedings, checking the submitted documents and sending a notification to the alimony payer. When evading payments in favor of a child or ignoring court orders, the responsible bailiff is authorized to take enforcement measures, sending requests to the tax authority, banking structures, and the Pension Fund. These actions are required to establish the source of funds from the parent, as well as the organization of deduction.

If the body that makes regular payments to the defendant is known, there is another option.:

• The parent raising the child submits the writ of execution to the Pension Fund department, supplementing the package with papers confirming the legality of the collection, as well as details for organizing deductions.
• Having considered the received appeal, the fund will begin to execute the court order to assign alimony starting from the next payment period.

Special cases

In addition to supporting children, men may also be required to support the pregnant wives they leave behind until the child turns three years old. This is stated in Article 90 of the IC. In this case, three conditions must be met:

1. availability of a certificate of pregnancy of the woman (the fact of pregnancy must be established before the divorce);
2. the marriage must be officially registered;
3. the expectant mother must prove to the court that her husband does not provide her with funds.

Article 90 of the Family Code does not limit the list of spouses who, after a divorce, can claim alimony, to future mothers. You can also count on payments:

• a parent raising a common disabled child until he becomes an adult (if the child has a Group I disability since childhood - while he is being cared for);
• one of the spouses who became disabled during the marriage or within one year after its dissolution;
• a needy spouse who became a pensioner within a maximum of 5 years after the divorce (if the marriage itself was not short-term).

Article 91 lists cases when alimony for the second spouse is not paid in the above cases:

• if the needy spouse has become disabled due to alcohol or drug abuse or as a result of an intentional crime committed by him;
• if the spouse demanding payment behaves in an unworthy manner;
• if the marriage did not last long.