Not just a disgrace: a registry of alimony debtors has been in operation in Russia since May 25

According to the director of the Federal Bailiff Service Dmitry Aristov, at the initial stage the registry will contain information on 190 thousand citizens. Fathers who regularly fulfill their obligations to pay alimony will not be included in the list.

By the way, when opening the registry, the first thing they show is a separate warning: participation in the SVO leads to the write-off of debts up to 10 million rubles, but does not exempt from paying alimony:

“In accordance with Federal Law No. 229-FZ of 02.10.2007 “On Enforcement Proceedings” (as amended by Federal Law No. 391-FZ of 23.11.2024), upon conclusion of a contract for military service for a period exceeding one year in the SVO zone from December 1, 2024, enforcement proceedings on unfulfilled credit obligations, including mortgages, of the debtor or his/her spouse in the amount of up to 10 million rubles are terminated.

In addition, enforcement proceedings against a debtor participating in the implementation of the SVO may be suspended in whole or in part, with the exception of enforcement proceedings for the collection of alimony, compensation for damages in connection with the death of a breadwinner, as well as corruption fines."

Aristov emphasized that the registry is initially intended to provide information: anyone can find information about a specific person by entering their last name in the search bar. At the same time, the possibility of introducing additional measures and restrictions is being considered.

“We have developed a number of proposals,” said First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Evgeny Zabarchuk during the presentation of the project at the thematic session of the XIII St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.

"The first of these is a ban on the use of state online services, including the State Services portal." In addition, alimony defaulters are planned to be prohibited from receiving loans and credits, except in cases where the funds will be used to pay off the debt.

“The third proposal is to prohibit malicious non-payers of alimony from holding positions in the state and municipal service,” noted Evgeny Zabarchuk.

It is also proposed to limit the possibility of purchasing premium class tickets for air and rail transport.

Alimony is a form of financial support that one family member is required by law to provide to another. Essentially, it is money intended to provide for minor children or disabled adult relatives.

In most cases, the responsibility for paying alimony falls on men in order to provide for their children financially. However, support may not only be expressed in monetary form; sometimes the parties come to an agreement that the father, for example, will pay for educational services or purchase clothing items for the child.

The amount of alimony payments is usually determined based on the payer's income level: 25% of income is due for one child, 33.3% for two, and 50% for three or more children. In situations where the payer is not officially employed or their income is unstable, the amount of alimony is set as a fixed amount, for example, based on the subsistence minimum for a child established in a given region. A combined form is also possible, in which both a fixed amount and a percentage of income are paid.

For each day of delay in alimony payments, the debtor may be charged a penalty in the amount of 0.1% of the amount of unpaid funds. In the event of failure to fulfill obligations without good reason for more than two months, an administrative case is initiated against the debtor, providing for fines or administrative arrest.

In more serious cases, a criminal case may be initiated. Under the relevant article, the debtor may face punishment in the form of correctional labor, arrest, or imprisonment.

The exact number of children in Russia for whose support alimony is paid remains unclear. There is no publicly available statistical information on this issue. This is due, in particular, to the fact that some parents reach an agreement on payments peacefully, while others do not apply for alimony due to their own sufficient level of income.

According to the 2020 census, there were 15.2 million families raising children under 18 in the Russian Federation. Among them, there were 5.9 million single mothers and 1.09 million single fathers. However, only about a third of single parents are officially divorced: 1.8 million women and 154 thousand men. The rest either do not actually live with their spouse, or are widowers/widows, or have never been married.

Thus, we can confidently speak about approximately 2 million broken families, where one of the parents is obliged to pay child support to the other. In addition, the obligation to pay alimony is imposed on parents deprived of parental rights by a court decision. For example, in 2023, 34,882 court decisions were made to deprive parental rights.

According to information announced in the State Duma, about 2.1 million Russian families do not receive alimony. However, this number also includes those families where parents have reached an agreement on financial support for children without going to court.

As part of the annual monitoring of the economic situation of the population, conducted by the Higher School of Economics together with other scientific organizations, in 2022, 2.6% of households indicated alimony (not necessarily for children) as one of the sources of income. It should be taken into account that a household is not always a family: a person living alone also belongs to a household. Based on the 2020 census data, according to which there were about 66 million households in Russia, approximately 1.9 million families receive payments.

As a result, according to various estimates, the number of families with children receiving alimony varies between 1.5 and 2 million.

According to the data of the said monitoring, the average monthly payment is 10.8 thousand rubles.

The typical alimony payer who has debt is a man aged 30 to 42 years, whose debt averages 226 thousand rubles. It is noteworthy that the overwhelming majority of debtors are not native residents of the city. In Moscow, out of 20 thousand debtors, only 339 people are registered as Muscovites.

The probability of not receiving alimony increases significantly if the child is born to a man who came from another region and does not have an official place of work. Statistics show that 58% of debtors do not have a permanent source of income.

Some defaulters hope to avoid alimony obligations, counting on the expiration of the three-year limitation period. However, it is worth considering a number of important points. Firstly, the court determines the payment of alimony not from the date of divorce, but from the moment the relevant claim is filed. Secondly, the plaintiff has the right to demand payment for the previous three years before filing the application, subject to providing evidence of written requests to the debtor. Therefore, in order to receive the alimony due by law, it is recommended to send registered letters with notification, telegrams, or e-mails, keeping all evidence of correspondence for presentation in court.

If the debtor's official income is minimal, and 25% for one child, 33% for two and 50% for three children is not enough to ensure a decent standard of living, or if the debtor is a freelancer with an unstable income, it is possible to apply to the court with a demand for alimony in a fixed monetary amount, a multiple of the subsistence minimum in the region. The amount of alimony is determined individually, based on the need to maintain the child's usual standard of living. In this case, the debtor's new loans, especially mortgages, can play a positive role, since banks do not provide loans to people without a stable income. This can be a significant argument in court.