Child maintenance (kinderalimentatie)

Child maintenance is the financial contribution a parent makes towards the cost of caring for and raising a child. The obligation exists whether or not the parents were ever married, and it does not depend on contact taking place.

Legal basis and duration

The duty to maintain follows from Articles 1:392 and 1:404 of the Dutch Civil Code. It runs until the child turns twenty-one. Between eighteen and twenty-one the young adult is entitled to the contribution personally, and the paying parent transfers it to the child rather than to the other parent. After twenty-one there is an obligation only where the child is unable to provide for itself, which is a high threshold.

How the amount is calculated

Courts apply the Tremanormen, the guidelines drawn up by the family law division of the judiciary. The calculation runs in two steps. First the child’s needs are established from a standard table, based on the family’s net income during the relationship and the number and ages of the children. Then each parent’s capacity to pay is calculated from their net disposable income, and the needs are divided between them in proportion to that capacity.

A care discount is applied to reflect the days the paying parent has the child, typically between fifteen and thirty-five per cent. The amount is indexed by law on 1 January each year.

Changing and enforcing it

Maintenance can be revised where circumstances change materially: a different income, a new child, a change in the care arrangement. Where the paying parent does not pay, the National Maintenance Collection Agency (LBIO) can collect on request, at no cost to the recipient, and has far-reaching powers including attachment of wages.

Where it goes wrong

The recurring problem is the amount agreed years ago and never revisited, on either side. The second is the assumption that maintenance may be suspended when contact is frustrated; it may not, and doing so simply adds arrears to the dispute.