In Ukraine, care about parents is not only a moral norm, but also a legal obligation. The Constitution and Family Code of Ukraine directly oblige adult children to take care of disabled parents and, if necessary, provide them with financial assistance. However, the obligation of retention has clear conditions and exceptions that the court takes into account.
According to Article 202 of the Family Code of Ukraine (UWC), adult daughters or son have the obligation to keep their parents if they are:
-
incapacitated (reached retirement age or have disabilities I -III);
-
need financial assistance (ie, do not have sufficient income, pensions or other source for the subsistence minimum).
The very fact of disability does not yet oblige children to pay alimony - it is important to prove that parents really cannot provide themselves. The existence of a pension, benefits, subsidies or property that can generate income is estimated.
The court may recover not only monthly alimony from the children, but also the cost of treatment or care if parents are seriously ill or are persons with disabilities. Alimony can be assigned both in a fixed amount and in percentage of income. In exceptional cases, they can only be awarded for a limited period - not more than three years.
The court also takes into account the possibility of receipt from other children, spouses or parents if the claim is filed with only one of the children.
There are exceptions when the child can be released by the court from the obligation to keep his parents. Among the grounds:
-
parents evaded their responsibilities about the child (did not educate, did not provide);
-
alimony was not paid, which resulted in a debt for more than three years, which was not repaid at the time of the case;
-
were deprived of parental rights and these rights were not renewed.
A daughter or son should prove in court the fact of such evasion or debt - for example, through executive documents or certificates from the state executive service.
