News item | 15-09-2023 | 2:30 PM
Child support owed must from now on be paid earlier when repaying debts. This way, parents who are entitled to child support receive more and earlier money to care for their children. Minister Weerwind for Legal Protection submitted a bill to the House of Representatives for this purpose, after the Council of Ministers agreed to the proposal.
Currently, child support debt has not been assigned a higher rank (preference). The child support debt is therefore on an equal footing with other debts and must take precedence over higher ranking debts. Preferred debts are paid earlier, after which the remaining money is divided among other debts, including child support. This bill will change this.
Minister Weerwind: “The more debts there are, the less there is left to pay child support. That is the case now because child support does not rank higher than other debts. The result can be a distressing situation, such as a parent who has too little money to pay for groceries, clothing or sports for the children. By giving child support payments a higher rank in the total debt, more and sooner child support will reach the parent who needs it. In this way we put the interests of the child first.”
More child support
Currently, child support debt has not been assigned a higher ranking. The child support debt is on an equal footing with most other debts, such as debts to online stores and telephone providers. If there are more creditors, the money to pay the debts first goes to the debts with a higher rank, for example a tax debt. What remains is distributed among the other creditors. Research by the National Office for the Collection of Maintenance Contributions (LBIO) shows that by assigning a higher rank to the child support debt, more child support can be collected. The bill will be submitted to the House of Representatives as soon as possible, after which the House of Representatives will decide when it will debate the bill.