How to prepare to discuss child support matters

If you want to agree on child support payments, you must be prepared to present documents related to your payment ability. Especially if you want the child welfare supervisor to determine your right to child maintenance support from Kela, you must submit the necessary documents to the email address provided by the child welfare officer a week before the scheduled consultation time.

Read the list of necessary documents below thoroughly and make sure that you are able to send the complete documents

• latest tax decision and pre-completed tax return
• pay certificates showing accrued wages for the current and previous year (certificates must show gross income, benefits in kind, itemised deductions and net income)
• certificates of benefits from Kela and permission to check them from Kela (e.g. unemployment benefit, student financial aid and housing allowance)
• report of other income (e.g. capital income and unemployment benefit from the union)
• proof of property
• report of housing costs (e.g. rent/maintenance charge, administration expenses of mortgage, electricity bill, home and property insurance)
• receipts of the administration expenses of the student loan
• receipts of your medical expenses
• receipts of your commuting expenses
• proof of other child support obligations
• receipts of the child’s day care costs, hobby costs, health care costs, school fees and insurance premiums.
• sentence plan

Parents have a statutory obligation to financially support their child and they cannot opt out even if the parent is not the child’s guardian or is not part of the child’s life.

When agreeing on the amount of child support, the following will be assessed:

• Need for child support
• The parent’s ability to pay support
• Comparison of the parents’ abilities to pay support

A child maintenance calculation is prepared to support the negotiations which is indicative and serves as the basis for the negotiations.

Parents have contractual freedom, but with certain limitations:

1. The child welfare supervisor does not confirm an agreement entitling to child maintenance allowance from Kela if the person liable to pay child support has the ability to pay.

When assessing the ability to pay, the following is taken into account:

• Income, wealth and opportunity to get income
• General living costs
• Reasonable housing costs
• Other child support obligations
• Commuting expenses (with limitations)
• Special medical costs
• Administrative costs of the student loan (with certain limitations)

Instead, the following are NOT taken into account when calculating the ability to pay child support:

• Excessive living costs
• Excessive housing costs
• Enforcement debts

2. If a parent’s ability to pay support has temporarily weakened, this alone is not grounds for granting maintenance allowance from Kela. The maintenance allowance is not intended to cover the temporary loss of income of the person liable for paying support, but as a rule, maintenance agreements are made for a longer period of time.
3. The child welfare supervisor does not confirm agreements in which the amount of child support exceeds the child’s need for it.  Child support is not intended to circumvent other payments, such as taxes or enforcement.