Child Maintenance - How the Real Amount Is Set When the Declared Income Is 500 Lari
The central conflict in a maintenance case is not in the law but in the facts: the parent who does not live with the child officially earns the minimum wage and lives on something else entirely. The law sets maintenance not as a percentage of salary but by the child's needs and the parent's real means, and that word "real" is the lawyer's main tool.
This page covers maintenance from every angle: how the amount is calculated and which evidence changes it, what the court chooses between a fixed sum and a share, how accumulated arrears are recovered and what levers exist against a non-payer, when and how maintenance is varied, what an adult child, a former spouse and a parent are entitled to, and how a lawyer protects a payer when the demand exceeds their means.
Updated · Practice area: Family lawyer
Types of Maintenance Under the Law - Who, From Whom and on What Condition
Maintenance is not only child support. The Code sets a duty of support between family members in several directions, each with its own conditions.
A Maintenance Case - From Calculating Needs to the Bureau's Order
Documenting the child's needs
A table of monthly expenses with receipts: food, clothing, school and activities, doctors and medication, transport, a share of housing. The court sets maintenance not for an "average" child but for this child, at the standard of living the child had while the parents lived together.
Proving the respondent's real means
The official income certificate is only the starting point. The lawyer requests bank turnover by court order, vehicles and real estate from the registries, business shares, social media (travel, purchases), border-crossing history, utility payments. A standard of living proves income even when the tax return says otherwise.
Choosing the form: fixed sum or share
A share of income (for example a quarter for one child) works on a transparent official salary; a fixed sum works on unstable or hidden income. The lawyer often asks for a combination: a fixed minimum plus a share, with indexation for inflation.
Agreement or lawsuit
A notarised maintenance agreement has the force of a writ of execution: it is enforced without court and needs no fee. Without agreement, a lawsuit with no court fee at the claimant's place of residence, with a request for interim maintenance until the case ends.
Recovering arrears
Unpaid maintenance goes to the enforcement bureau: salary deductions at a higher ceiling, attachment of accounts, sale of assets, a motion for a travel ban. Maintenance arrears are not time-barred while a writ exists; wilful evasion is a criminal offence.
Variation
Maintenance is not permanent: on a material change in the child's needs or the parent's means, either side may sue to increase or reduce it. The lawyer proves the change with documents: a new child, loss of a job, illness, a change of school.
You Are Asked for Maintenance You Cannot Pay - What the Lawyer Does for the Payer
A maintenance case is not one-sided. The parent who does not live with the child often has two problems: a demand that exceeds their real means, and a fear that the money paid does not reach the child. Both are solved legally, not by refusing to pay, which only accumulates arrears and hands leverage to the other side.
First, proving means: the real picture of income, support of other children and family members unable to work, one's own housing and health costs. The court sets maintenance by comparing the means of both parents, and the other parent's high income reduces the payer's share. Second, purpose: the court can direct part of the maintenance into the child's account or set a form of direct payment of expenses (school, activities) where this is justified.
Third, a claim for reduction when means change, immediately rather than years later: the court varies maintenance from the date of filing, not retroactively, and arrears accumulated before then remain in force.
What Happens to a Parent Who Does Not Pay Maintenance
- Deduction and attachment
- The bureau deducts maintenance from salary at a higher ceiling than for other debts; accounts and property are handled in the ordinary way. Maintenance ranks ahead of other creditors.
- Travel ban
- Where maintenance arrears exist, on the bureau's motion the court restricts the debtor's border crossing: one of the most effective levers against a parent working abroad.
- Criminal law
- Wilful evasion of maintenance is an offence where a writ exists, the arrears are prolonged and the parent fails to pay despite having the means. The prospect of prosecution frequently produces payment.
- Restriction of parental rights
- Systematic evasion of maintenance is among the grounds for restricting or removing parental rights, which affects consent to adoption and to taking the child abroad.
- Calculating arrears
- The bureau calculates arrears month by month; for maintenance set as a share, where income is unconfirmed, at the average wage. The lawyer checks the calculation for either side.
What to Collect Before a Maintenance Claim
- A table of the child's expenses for the last 3-6 months with receipts: school, activities, doctors, clothing, food.
- Signs of the respondent's income: workplace, business, vehicle, real estate, dated photos of travel and purchases from social media.
- Correspondence about maintenance: promises, acknowledgement of the sum, reasons for refusal; all of it is acknowledgement of the debt.
- The history of sums paid so far: bank transfers, or their absence.
- Your own income and expenses: the court compares the means of both parents.
- For the payer: proof of supporting other children and family members unable to work, and of health costs.
Three Maintenance Cases
A businessman on a 600-lari salary
The father is officially an employee of a company at 600 lari; the company is his own. Lawyer: a 100% shareholding from the registry, the company's turnover, two cars, a winter resort on social media. The court set maintenance at a fixed 1,500 lari with indexation, regardless of the official salary.
3 years of arrears from abroad
The father has been in Europe for 3 years, pays nothing, visits in summer. Lawyer: arrears calculated at the bureau, a motion for a travel ban, a draft criminal complaint. The ban worked at the border on his arrival; the arrears were paid in full and maintenance was agreed as an annual advance payment.
Payer: maintenance beyond means
The mother demanded 2,000 lari; the father's real income was 1,200 with two other children. Lawyer: the full income picture, support of the other children, the mother's own high income, a realistic table of the child's expenses. Maintenance of 450 lari plus direct payment of half the school costs.
Questions About Maintenance
Is there a statutory minimum amount of maintenance?
The Code sets no fixed minimum; the court is guided by the child's needs and the parents' means. In practice the court rarely sets maintenance below the subsistence minimum, and the principle of preserving the child's standard of living applies. The lawyer's work is documenting exactly those two factors.
I transfer maintenance every month, yet the other parent blocks my visits. Am I entitled to stop paying?
No: maintenance and the right of contact are two independent obligations; breach of one does not justify suspending the other, and it accumulates arrears. Breach of contact is addressed by a separate claim and enforcement, described on the child residence page. Both run in parallel.
Can I claim maintenance retroactively for the years he did not pay?
Maintenance is awarded from the date the claim is filed. For a past period, at most 3 years back and only on proof that you actively sought payment and the respondent evaded it: messages, demands, applications. That is why the lawyer recommends a written demand even before the lawsuit.
My child is 18 and a student. Does maintenance continue?
The statutory duty ends at 18; continuation for a student is only by agreement between the parents or, in the case of incapacity, by the court. That is why the lawyer proposes a clause on the study period in the maintenance agreement in advance; parents agree to it more easily at the moment of divorce than 10 years later.
Maintenance for a spouse: is it really awarded in Georgia?
Rarely, but it is: for a former spouse caring for a child under 3, one who is pregnant, and one unable to work. The amount is modest and depends on the other side's means. Support for a pension-age former spouse after a long marriage is even rarer, but a working rule.
Lawyers for Maintenance Cases
A maintenance case is won on two tables, real income and real expenses, and on the skill of working with the bureau once the sum is set. Within 15 minutes the coordinator connects you with a lawyer who sets and recovers maintenance regularly.
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Call: 568 330 318Maintenance Not Set, Not Paid, or Demanded Beyond Your Means?
In a free consultation the lawyer assesses what sum is realistic in your case, how to prove the other side's income or your own means, and which lever works on arrears. The coordinator rings back in 15 minutes.