The Supreme Court clarified when it is possible not to pay child support with impunity

The court ruled that the number of valid reasons for non-payment of alimony include cases when a person cannot pay funds regardless of his will. Such reasons may be illness, non-payment of wages, military service, Kommersant reports.

Among the valid reasons for non-payment of alimony, the court attributed the illness and disability of the debtor, his conscription into the army, as well as errors of the accounting department or the bank that incorrectly transferred the amounts for alimony. Delay and non-payment of wages, as well as "force majeure circumstances" are considered a good reason.

But if the debtor went to jail, then this does not exempt him from paying alimony.

"In this case, the court must find out whether he was involved in paid work, whether he refused to work without a good reason", - the statement says.

If the debtor does not agree with the amount of alimony assigned to be paid, this is not a reason not to pay it. To dispute the amount, you must go to court.

“A person obliged to pay alimony is subject to administrative liability if it is established that he intentionally paid incomplete funds for the maintenance of children or disabled parents, that is, the payment of alimony in an amount less than that provided for by a judicial act or an agreement on the payment of alimony, since this circumstance is their violation", - TASS quotes the ruling of the plenum of the Supreme Court.

According to the FSSP, they usually have about 800 thousand alimony workers on their books a year. Approximately one in five refuses to pay money. In 2020, 103 thousand new alimony workers appeared in Russia who did not voluntarily transfer money to support their dependents, almost 100 thousand debtors were fined for this, subjected to compulsory labor and administrative arrest. For malicious evasion of the payment of alimony, the debtor may be held criminally liable under Article 157 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The punishment can be up to a year in prison. Over the past year, 35 thousand people have received convictions in criminal cases of non-payment of alimony.