Question:
Until what age does a parent have to pay maintenance for a child in Israel?
Answer:
Normally until the age of 18, unless there is a court judgment or agreement that maintenance should be paid until the child completes their high school education, even if they are then over 18, or until they start compulsory military service. If, however, they are over 18 and between finishing high school and starting the army they work, then the parent does not have to pay maintenance. It is now accepted that a child serving in the army should get a third of their original maintenance.
Child Maintenance Stalemate – Father’s Whereabouts Unknown
Question:
I filed my child’s father for maintenance several years ago but to date have not received a shekel because he cannot be traced to file him with the papers. I think he is in Israel . What can I do?
Answer:
If the whereabouts of a potential maintenance debtor are unknown application can be made to the Ministry of Interior for a record of his entries and exits from the country. If he is recorded as still being in Israel then it is possible to apply to the court for ‘substituted service ‘ – permission to serve him with the plea in a different way( e.g. an advertisement in the press), according to its instructions.
Foreign Resident – Attendance At Child Maintenance Hearing
Question:
When I lived in Israel as a foreigner worker I got my Israeli girlfriend pregnant. She is Jewish but I am not. She had the baby and I was registered as father. I returned to my native country. Recently she phoned me and said she planned to file me for child support in Israel. What could happen if I do not travel to Israel for the court hearing or ignore any documentation I receive from Israel ?
Answer:
If you are correctly served with a plea for child maintenance after an Israeli court has granted permission for service of documents to be made overseas, that court gains jurisdiction even though you are not in Israel. If you don't not attend the hearing or file a defence, the court has jurisdiction to pass judgment against you and award child maintenance.
Payment Date – Maintenance
Question:
If, in a court judgment given on the first of a certain month, it states that child maintenance is to be paid every 10th day of the month, does that mean that the father has to pay that same month, or the following one, when he receives his salary for that month?
Answer:
That same month ! The wording of the court judgment is be taken literally and simply. If a court judgment is given on the first day of a particular month, and states that the father should pay his children maintenance on the tenth of each month, then the obligation starts that very same month – 9 days later. He is supposed to pay on the 10th of each month.
Plea Date & Child Maintenance
Question:
I have filed for child maintenance but the court has yet made any decision. Will it take into account the time that has passed since I filed the plea when it eventually decides?
Answer:
Yes ! The court will normally award child maintenance from the time the plea was made – whether it makes a decision on temporary maintenance or a judgment regarding permanent maintenance.
Child Maintenance Law Not Universal
Question:
Is the law in Israel relating to child maintenance universal?
Answer:
No – different law applies to different parents, and what children get depends partly upon their parents' religion. Child maintenance differs according to whether religious or civil law applies, and this in turn depends upon on parental religion. The religious and civil maintenance obligations are different . Religious law places a harsher burden on fathers whilst civil does not discriminate against fathers .
During a child maintenance case at Tel Aviv Family Court in June 2003 Judge Granit criticized the present situation: “ There was perhaps justification from a sociological point of view for including personal law in matters of maintenance during the Colonial period – Ottoman and Mandatory – and the collective justice in the first years of the foundation of the state of Israel, but now the maintenance law – is no longer justified in the year 2003, when the majority of the population of Israel is secular, and part of it has no religion at all….”
Parents of Different Religions – Effect on Child Maintenance
Question:
Does it make any difference what religion each parent is as far as their relative responsibilities for child maintenance is concerned – and does this mean that certain fathers will pay more because of their religion, or that of the mother?
Answer:
Yes , it can do, and very much so ! Because of the unique family law system in Israel, which is a blend of religious and civil law inherited from the days of the Ottoman rule and the British Mandate, a non-custodial father's obligation may vary very much depending on his religion and that of the mother, and whether they were ever married or not!
Under Israeli law where a father who is the non-custodial parent has a personal or religious law (e.g. if he is Jewish, Moslem, and certain Christian sects), then his maintenance obligation towards his minor children will be governed by it. This could be a sole obligation e.g. under Jewish law a father bears sole responsibility to support children born to him of a Jewish mother, until they are 15. From then until the age of 15, it is shared equally between both parents, until the age of 18.
If, however, under his personal law, a father is not obliged to support his minor child/ren (e.g. under Islamic law where he is not married to the mother), or if he has no personal law applying to him (e.g. if he belongs to a faith unrecognized in Israel e.g. Anglican Christian, or has no religion ), then he will be obliged to support his minor children according to civil law. Under this, the Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Act of 1959, both parents are liable to support their minor children, according to their relative incomes.
One can get the absurd situation whereby a Jewish father of Jewish children may be solely liable under Jewish law for supporting his child's basic needs until the age of 15, with the mother only having to contribute between the ages of 15-18, whereas an Anglican Christian father , or a father with no religion, with a child born to a Jewish mother, will be jointly liable with her, to support their minor, according to their relative incomes, until the age of 18. The Jewish father could be paying double what the Christian father pays…even if they both have young children of similar age!
Discrimination Against Jewish Men – Child Maintenance
Question:
How equally does Jewish law treat men and women when it comes to their relative maintenance burden as parents of minor children?
Answer:
Unequally, stressed Tel Aviv Family Court in a maintenance decision in January 2003 in which it contrasted substantive Jewish law’s unequal attitude towards the sexes with Israel’s international commitment to equality between the sexes under the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
“Jewish law obliges the father to maintain his minor children (until the age of 15) and it is up to him alone to supply their essential needs, while it is only possible to oblige the mother to supply maintenance from the laws of charity, above essential maintenance”, it said.
Father's Earnings – Failure to Declare
Question:
What can happen in a child maintenance case if the father refuses to declare his income when he files his defence?
Answer:
The court can declare his income according to the version the mother gave in her plea. This is what Tel Aviv Family Court did in July 2006 when the father failed to give details of his income or attach supporting documentation in his defence pleadings in a plea for child maintenance filed by the mother.
Wife’s Jewishness Unproved – Effect On Children’s Maintenance
Question:
What consequences would there be regarding my maintenance obligation towards my children if I proved to the rabbinical court that my wife , who filed for divorce there, was not Jewish?
Answer:
If it is proved that a mother is not Jewish then according to Jewish law, her children are not Jewish. This would mean that the father’s maintenance obligation towards his minor children would be governed by civil law, and not Jewish law. According to the Family Amendment (Maintenance) Act of 1959 , parents share the maintenance obligation towards their minor children , according to their relative incomes.
Maintenance - Child Born Abroad Outside Wedlock
Question:
Is a man facing a maintenance plea in Israel for a child born abroad liable to support the minor – if he is not married to the mother?
Answer:
Yes. The relevant legislation, the Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Act of 1959 , does not differentiate between children born whose parents are married and those who are unmarried, and applies to minors born abroad or in Israel.
Child Maintenance Levels – Joint Custody
Question:
Will a father pay less child maintenance if he and the mother are both Jewish, and agree to have joint custody of their children, rather than the mother having sole custody, and him visitation rights?
Answer:
Yes. A groundbreaking ruling was given in July 2017 in Israel dealing with child support for 6-15 year olds in cases of joint physical custody, where both parents are Jewish (Petition 919/15). An enlarged panel of 7 Supreme Court judges held that the obligation to provide for the basic needs of children between those ages, under a more liberal interpretation of Jewish law, and in today's reality, is a shared burden,where physical custody is joint, and is a function of relative parental income, and earning ability. Previously, it was the father's sole responsibility for supporting minor children between those ages, where both parents were Jewish, even when physical custody was joint, and child maintenance only became a shared burden, when a minor reached 15.
What Child Maintenance Covers – Jewish Parents
Question:
What child maintenance can a mother claim for her children from their father if they are all Jewish ? Are there things she is expected to pay for?
Answer:
Where the mother, father and children are all Jewish, the father alone is responsible for supporting the minors financially until they are 15. He alone is responsible for providing their basic needs such as accommodation, food, clothing , footwear and education. Expenses other than basic needs (e.g. extra-curricular activities and exceptional medical expenses) are to be shared equally between both parents depending upon their relative incomes. The father’s maintenance obligation towards his minor children is based not only on what he earns, but on his earning capability.
Accommodation Costs & Child Maintenance
Question:
I left my husband and rented an apartment in which the children and I live. Does their father have an obligation to cover the cost of the children’s accommodation?
Answer:
If a father’s children live in rented accommodation with their mother then part of his maintenance obligation towards them as minors will be connected with this. Normally it is accepted that the father should pay a third of the costs of accommodation where just one child lives with the mother in a rented apartment. The share of the accommodation cost rises to 40% of the cost when there are two children, and to 50% for three children.
It should be noted that even if the children live in the family home and not in a rented apartment the above proportions of the ‘running costs’ can be claimed as part of the accommodation element of their maintenance. A portion of the municipality tax, electricity , gas and telephone bills can be claimed for, as well as part of the television licence, cable t.v. and repairs. The only difference is , of course, that where the custodial parent has to rent accommodation, a proportion of the rental cost can be claimed in addition.
Father Relinquishes Rights in Home – Effect on Child Support
Question:
If a husband/father gives up his rights in the marital home and its contents, will this influence the amount of child maintenance he pays where all the family are Jewish?
Answer:
Yes! The accommodation element is a central element in child maintenance that a Jewish father is obliged to pay his Jewish children, under Jewish law. When a husband/father gives up his rights in the family home, and its contents, he is actually giving a roof over his head to his offspring and is fulfilling his maintenance obligation to them directly. This will clearly reduce the amount of maintenance he will be obliged to pay them every month.
‘Minimum’ Child Maintenance
Question:
Is there a standard, minimum sum set for child maintenance?
Answer:
No, but courts tend to set child maintenance at around 1,200- 1,500 shekels a month where the parent claiming it for the minor does not actually prove/detail the minor’s needs in the written pleadings. This gives the impression that there is a ‘going rate’ for child maintenance. This does not include money towards the accommodation element in a child's maintenance.
‘Minimum’ Child Maintenance Plus Accommodation Element
Question:
I am about to file for child custody and maintenance. I have just left my husband and am staying with my parents for a short while until I can find an apartment at a reasonable rent. I have one child. Is there a minimum amount of child maintenance I can expect to get?
Answer:
Where the parent filing for child maintenance has somewhere to live with the child the basic figure which courts tend to set - where there is no written estimation of the child’s needs - is around 1,200-1,500 Shekels per month. However, where the parent filing for child maintenance has to find accommodation then the sum set will be higher as it will include a proportion of the cost of this for the child. It is generally accepted that the non-custodial parent should pay 30% of the accommodation costs where there is one child living with the custodial parent in a rented apartment.
Custodial Parent Owning Apartment & Accommodation Costs
Question:
Can a custodial parent owning an apartment sue the non-custodial parent for payment towards accommodation for the parties’ two children’s even after divorce?
Answer:
Yes, if the child maintenance the custodial parent receives for the children does not include an element for accommodation, then it is possible to sue the non-custodial parent for 40% of the accommodation costs for two children to cover costs such as electricity, municipality taxes, water, gas and house committee fees (‘Va’ad Bayit’)
Custodial Mother Lives With Family – Effect on Child Support
Question:
Is a father freed from paying child support for accommodation for his children if the mother, the custodian, lives with them at her family’s home ?
Answer:
A father is obliged to pay his children’s accommodation costs but if there are none in practice, then he does not have to do so. Having said this, if the mother chooses to rent accommodation to dwell in with their children, then the father will be obliged to pay the relative cost of this in relation to the minors.
If the mother and children live in her parent’s home, then, usually the question of rent is not relevant, and only the question of paying the minors relative part of other accommodation costs (such as electricity, water, gas, phone bills etc) applies.
Child Support – Father's Income "Differs" in Proceedings
Question:
I have filed a plea for child maintenance for our young children against my husband. In his defence pleadings he claims he only earns about 3,000 shekels. When looking through his papers I saw that he has other legal proceedings where he claimed his income was much more. I do not go out to work but stay home to look after the children. Can this help me get more maintenance for them?
Answer:
Yes – when the family court sets maintenance and the mother does not work and has no income , the level of the father’s income and his earning potential are important factors, as are the children’s needs. If the mother can prove to the court that the father’s real income or earning potential is actually greater than what he claims in his defence pleadings in the maintenance case – by , for example, supplying a photocopy of other legal proceedings in which he claims he earns more – then this could help persuade the court to award higher maintenance.
This happened in June 2004 when an ex-wife managed to produce evidence to the family court in Kfar Saba showing that her ex-husband claimed that he earned 5,000 shekels a month in legal proceedings at Netanya Magistrates’ Court, while in the maintenance case he attached salary slips attesting to a monthly income of only 2,700 shekels. Due to this and other inconsistencies in evidence, the family court set temporary maintenance of 3,500 shekels at a preliminary hearing. This represented a 1,000 shekel- a- month increase on the sum the ex-wife was actually receiving for the five children.
Child Allowance & Child Maintenance
Question:
Is maintenance awarded by court for minors affected by the child allowance the custodial parent receives for them from the National Insurance Institute?
Answer:
Yes, indirectly. Child allowance is paid by the National Insurance Institute to the parent having custody over the minors. When the court sets child maintenance it can take into account the sum received from the National Insurance Institute as being part of the sum needed to supply the minor/s needs. In practice the court sets a sum of maintenance and states that the child allowance is in addition to this, and is to be paid directly to the custodial parent. The court does not set a sum needed, deduct the child allowance and then refer to the remaining figure as maintenance.
Child Maintenance and Education
Question:
I have custody of our child and am awarded maintenance . He finished nursery and is now in first grade. I asked him for money towards the cost of a school bag, stationery and text books because these a costly extra expense. He refused, saying that the maintenance he pays covers this. What does the maintenance a child receives cover in relation to education?
Answer:
The education element of child maintenance covers running costs such as school fees, registration, text books, equipment .
Regarding , special needs, it is possible that the divorce agreement or judgment makes specific reference to these. If , however, the child does have special educational needs because he has, for example, concentration problems such as A.D.D. or A.D.H.D., or dyslexia, and he needs extra tuition by a private tutor, or needs to attend a special course, and this was not diagnosed before, or was not mentioned in the agreement/judgment, and the non-custodial parent does not co-operate and participate in the cost of these, then the custodial parent can take legal action. A plea may be filed for an increase in maintenance, based on the child’s special needs.
After School Enrichment Activities – Limitations
Question:
According to our divorce agreement my ex-wife and I are supposed to share the cost of our son’s after school activities equally between us. Nothing is said about the types of activities he should attend, nor how often. I let my ex-wife, who has custody, decide things. Lately it has got out of hand. He goes to some kind of activity after school every day. His marks at school have gone down and down – I think because he is too busy with all his after-school activities. Not only is our child suffering – but my pocket is, too. I am now paying more for my son’s after-school activities than I am in child maintenance. My ex-wife will not listen. I cannot continue this way – I have had to take a salary drop to keep my job. What can I do?
Answer:
As a minor’s natural guardians a mother and father are equally responsible for after-school activities and whoever has custody cannot enrol a child for them without limitation. The non-custodial parent should be involved in this. If the custodial parent enrols the child for activities without limitation, then the non-custodial parent can act against this. One option is to ask the court to become involved ( within the framework of the minor’s guardianship file) and give instructions about the type and number of activities which the child should attend, given the fact that his/her performance and achievements at school are being adversely affected by attending too many outside activities. The other option is to file for a reduction in child maintenance- based on the non-custodial parent’s reduced earnings and centred on setting limits to the amount of after school activities he/she should attend with the non-custodial parent’s financial participation.
Child Maintenance & Father's Financial Position – Jewish Parents
Question:
Will the fact that a father is wealthy with a high salary influence the amount of child maintenance his offspring will get – where both parents and the minors are Jewish?
Answer:
Yes ! Although in theory child maintenance is largely set according to the minors' needs, and set criteria, which place the sole burden on the father until the child is 15 in accordance with Jewish law, a court will not ignore the fact that a father is well established, and earns a high salary, and is likely to be generous in the sum it sets.
Child Support For 15-18 Year Old - Jewish Parents
Question:
My husband and I are Jewish and want to divorce. I work outside the home. My husband agrees that I should have custody of our 12 year old son and 16 year old daughter. Will I have to contribute towards supporting the children or will only my husband have to support them?
Answer:
Until minor children are 15 Jewish law places the obligation of supporting minors solely on the father. From the age of 15 onwards the obligation derives from ‘Charity’. This does not mean it is voluntarily, although it sounds like it. It is a legally binding obligation but it is shared between both the parents, depending on their relative incomes. Whoever earns more will contribute more and vice versa.
Thus both you and the father will share the maintenance burden of the child who is over 15 but the father alone will have to support the child below the age of 15.
Jewish Child’s Income Can Affect Child Support
Case:
My wife and I are very comfortably off and want for nothing. We have just one child, aged 12. My wife’s mother passed away a few years ago, leaving our daughter, her only grandchild, a substantial amount of real estate, including an apartment block and shops which are rented out. My wife and I do not get along and have decided to divorce. I agree that she should have custody over our daughter though I disagree with her about the level of child maintenance she has suggested, due to the monthly income received from rental of the real estate. Could I still have to pay child maintenance for my daughter even though her own income exceeds my monthly salary?! We are all Jewish.
Answer:
A Jewish father is obliged to support his minor child/ren born to a Jewish mother according to Jewish law. Until the child is aged six, a Jewish’s father’s maintenance obligation to his child is absolute – he still has to support him regardless of whether the child has his own income.
From the age of 6-15 the obligation is ‘semi-absolute’ . If the child has no independent income then the father’s maintenance obligation will still be absolute – the entire burden will fall on his shoulder’s alone. If, however, the child has his own independent source of income – e.,g. through inheritance or a trust fund then this will be taken into account. If a child maintenance plea is filed and it is established that the child’s income is greater than his needs, then almost certainly the father will be exempt from supporting him, or will only have to pay very low child maintenance. If, however, the child’s needs are shown to be greater than his income, then the father will be obliged to pay the difference.
Child Maintenance - Jewish Toddler & Trust Fund
Question:
My wife and I have separated. Our 3 year old child lives with her. My wife says I am legally bound to support our son but I said it is ridiculous as has his own income from a trust fund his maternal grandfather made for him. My wife and I are Jewish. Do I have to pay child maintenance?
Answer:
A Jewish father’s maintenance obligation is based on Jewish religious law which has been adopted by civil legislation, the Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Act of 1959. Up until a minor is 6 the father’s maintenance obligation is absolute in Jewish law, so your 3 year old's own income from a trust fund would not alter your maintenance obligation at this stage ,but between the ages of 6-15 it will be taken into account.
Father’s Maintenance Obligation & Yeshiva Studies
Question:
Does a Jewish father who studies at Yeshiva and does not work have to support his children?
Answer:
Yes. Studying at Yeshiva does not free a father of his maintenance obligation to his minor children under Jewish law, and nor does an agreement made in which the father-in-law undertakes to support the family so that the son-in-law can devote himself to religious study . While Jewish learning is an important value it takes second place to a Jewish father’s duty to support his children, held Jerusalem family court in July 2001 .
In the case the mother had filed the father for maintenance for the couple’s three young children. In his defence the father, who came from a rabbinical family, claimed that an agreement signed by the couple’s fathers before their marriage freed him of any financial obligation towards their future children and allowed him to devote himself to religious study. In the agreement the father-in-law had undertaken to provide the couple with a monthly income. Following his death and after his daughter’s funds started to run dry, the father was filed for maintenance . The family court rejected his defence and held that the minors were not bound by the agreement. They were not parties to it and were not even born at the time it was made, it said. Any financial help he received from his wife or family was purely voluntary and did not relieve the father of his obligations, the court held, ordering him to pay child maintenance , stressing that he must make a great effort to support his minor children.
Child Maintenance – Custodial Father Jewish
Question :
Can a Jewish husband who has custody of his minor child get maintenance for him from his wife, the child’s mother?
Answer:
The question of whether a Jewish father with custody of a minor child can get maintenance for him paid by the mother depends on whether she is Jewish or not and upon the minor’s age.
This is because his maintenance obligation depends on his personal law, Jewish religious law. If his wife is not Jewish their child is not Jewish, and his maintenance obligation will be covered by civil law as Jewish religious law will not oblige him to support the minor.
If the wife/mother is Jewish then the father is not entitled to file the mother for maintenance if the child is under 15 because the burden of supporting the minor falls solely on the father until that age. From 15 onwards, both parents are responsible for supporting the child, depending on their relative incomes.
Alternatively, if the wife/mother is non-Jewish the father may be entitled to get some maintenance for the child as civil law –the Family Law (Maintenance) Amendment Act of 1959- shares the burden between both parents, depending on their relative incomes, irrespective of the minor’s age.
Law Applying to Moslem Child Support At Family Court
Question:
I have heard that a married Moslem woman can now file her Moslem husband for child maintenance at the family court, instead of the Sha’ari court. If she does, by which law will the court decide on the issue?
Answer:
Providing the Moslem couple are married in the eyes of Islamic law, then the personal law relating to Moslems will apply, even though the case will be heard in a civil court, the family one. If however, the Moslem mother is not married, then the man’s obligation, once paternity is proved, will be based on Israeli civil law . This is because Islamic law only recognizes paternity within Moslem religious marriage and according to the 1959 Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Act, where a father is not obliged to pay maintenance according to his personal law, or where personal law does not apply, he will be liable to pay child support according to the act. Under this, both parents will be equally responsible for supporting the child, based on their relative incomes.
Married/Divorced Moslem Father's Child Maintenance Obligation
Question:
Is there any link between a father's earnings and the level of maintenance he is obliged to pay his minor children if all of them are Moslems , and their mother is/was married to him?
Case:
Yes ! The level of maintenance he is obliged to pay is linked not only to his actual earnings, but also to his earning potential, and of course, their needs. This was pointed out in proceedings between a separated Moslem married couple at Nazareth Family Court in May 2006.
Moslem - Child Maintenance Until 18, not Extended to 21
Question:
To what age are children entitled to be supported by their fathers in Israel where both parents are Moslem, and they will not serve in the Israeli army ?
Answer:
Until the age of 18, in principle. What applies to children who do compulsory army service, and who can get up to a 1/3 of the maintenance they were entitled to as minors, from the age of 18-21, does not apply here to Moslems ,who are exempt from army service.
Maintenance & Spouse’s Children From First Marriage – Father Dead
Question :
My wife has threatened to file for divorce and for maintenance for her three children, one of whom is from her first husband who is deceased. I am an immigrant from Russia, with no recorded religion. My wife is Jewish. Will I have to pay maintenance for the child from her first marriage?
Answer:
Yes, as you have no religion, under Israeli law you are not subject to any personal law, and your maintenance obligation is governed by the Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Act of 1959. Under the act you have to bear the maintenance burden for your children and those of your spouse - even though you are not the biological parent. This obligation is shared by the two of you, depending on your relative incomes.
Child Support - From Current Husband or Biological Father ?
Question:
I am an immigrant from the former U.S.S.R. and have no religion. My wife is Jewish. We have a son and she has a daughter from her first marriage . Our marriage has broken down. The children stayed with her when we separated. I have just received a plea for child maintenance for both children. Do I have to pay maintenance for my wife’s daughter ? The child’s father is alive; he is probably in the U.S.S.R., but has not made contact with his daughter for some time and my wife doesn’t know where he lives now.
Answer:
A parent’s maintenance obligation regarding minor children is based on his/her personal, religious law. Where a person has no religious law – as in the case of someone without a religion – or the personal law does not apply, then civil legislation applies. The Family Law (Maintenance) Amendment Act of 1959 states that a married person is liable for the maintenance of his minor children and those of his spouse. However, where the biological father of the spouse’s child is alive, maintenance must be filed against him first. Only when this is done and the biological father cannot support the child at all then can a maintenance plea be filed against the child’s mother’s spouse.
These points were made clear by Tel Aviv Family Court in 2002 in a case where it held that a non-Jewish spouse was not liable for the maintenance of his wife’s child from her first marriage because she had not first applied for financial support from the biological father who was alive. Maintenance was awarded only for the couple’s mutual child.
Child Maintenance: Father Kibbutz Member
Question:
How is maintenance calculated for children living in the city with their mother if their father is a member of a kibbutz?
Answer:
A number of principles have been developed in the courts to calculate how much child maintenance a father living on a kibbutz should pay for his children if they live outside the kibbutz with their mother.
They are :
(a)The father’s financial capability to pay should be based on what he would earn if he worked outside the kibbutz rather than hiding behind the cloak of the kibbutz .
(b)The children’s standard of living should not be inferior to that of the father.
(c)The standard of living that the father owes if his (ex)spouse left the kibbutz for a justified reason should be equal to what she and the children would have had if they had remained on the kibbutz – but no more.
(d)The differences in standards of living between rich and poor kibbutzim should be taken into account
(e)The father could be expected to have more than one job, just like a father of several children who lived in the city, in order to support them.
Maintenance For Children On Kibbutz
Question:
My children live with their mother on kibbutz. I live in the city and am not a member of the kibbutz . Do I have to support my children or is this the responsibility of the kibbutz?
Answer:
A father bears the legal responsibility for supporting his children, even if someone else – here the kibbutz – does this in practice. So the Supreme Court held in the sixties in a case concerning a father and his maintenance obligation towards his children who were living with his ex-wife on kibbutz. The father was not a kibbutz member. He claimed that the kibbutz looked after the children’s every need and that, therefore, he was not legally bound to support them. His appeal was rejected.
Maintenance For Adopted Child
Question :
My husband and I adopted a child. My husband and I have now split up. He left us and the child has remained with me. Can I file my husband for maintenance for our child, as well as for me?
Answer:
Yes. An adopted child has full rights to maintenance . An adoption order transfers all rights and obligations from the biological parents to the adoptive parents. Furthermore, under the Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Act of 1959 the definition of a child given in the introduction includes an adopted child. Thus a plea for child maintenance can be made against an adoptive father.
Agreement Over Child Maintenance After Court Judgment
Question:
Is it possible for a father to make an agreement reducing child support with the mother after the family court has passed judgment about his maintenance obligation?
Answer:
Firstly, the concept of parents agreeing about child maintenance made after a court has passed judgment on how much the father should pay is problematic. Clearly, child maintenance is designed to cover the minor’s ongoing needs. Any agreement altering what the court decided should receive prior authorisation by the court. It needs authorisation according to the Legal Capacity & Guardianship Act of 1962 as in principle an agreement reducing child maintenance is contrary to the ‘child’s good’ – the latter being the guiding force of this legislation. It also needs authorisation according to the Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Act of 1959.
Maintenance Agreement - Implied Cancellation & New Plea
Question:
I got divorced a few years ago. I paid child maintenance according to our divorce agreement. We then lived together again for a few years and have recently split up. Do I still owe maintenance according to the agreement ?
Answer:
When a man and a woman live together again for a long period after divorcing one another there is an implied cancellation of the man’s maintenance obligation according to their divorce agreement. Thus if they split up once again, a new maintenance plea will have to be filed.
Arbitration & Child Maintenance
Question:
I am trying to negotiate a divorce agreement with my husband from whom I am separated. It is almost impossible trying to get him to agree to giving the children a decent sum of maintenance. He suggested putting a clause in our divorce agreement which fixes a sum for a limited period and then leaves the matter in the hands of an arbitrator. Is this possible ?
Answer:
No, the general rule developed in the courts is that children have a material right to maintenance and their parents cannot limit this or the way in which it is actualised by a divorce agreement signed by them. More specifically, the Tel Aviv Family Court has specifically stated that primary jurisdiction for child maintenance lies with the family court and cannot be handed over to an arbitrator.
In that case, the children had filed for maintenance from their father at the family court, despite an agreement signed by the parents whereby they undertook that future disputes on child maintenance would be dealt with by named arbitrators whose decision would be binding. The court proceeded to deal with the plea.
Child Maintenance When Mother Receives Disability Allowance
Question:
Since I was injured in a car accident I have been unable to work and live off a disability allowance from the National Insurance Institute. I receive extra money for one ‘dependant’ - my daughter who lives with me. If I file her father for child maintenance, how will this affect the money I get from the National Insurance ? I do not live with my daughter’s father anymore . We never married and I receive no maintenance from him.
Answer:
If a woman who receives no maintenance for herself, but lives off a disability allowance with an additional sum for her dependent child , files the child’s father for maintenance for the minor this will affect the figure the court sets. The ‘extra’ received for the minor dependant in the disability allowance will be deducted from the maintenance the father has to pay. There will be no need to set maintenance for the period of the child’s compulsory military service (a customary third of the original figure). This is because the supplementary sum for a dependant covers this period. These principles emerged from a child maintenance case before the Tel Aviv family court in July 2001 where the mother lived off a disability allowance which included a supplementary figure for two minors living with her.
Child Attending Special School – Divorced Mother Gets Expenses
Question:
The rabbinical court granted me custody over my son and my ex-husband pays him maintenance. I was working but have been forced to change from a full-time to a part-time job because of my son’s learning difficulties. He has a severe concentration problem and attends a special school outside our district . There is no organized transport and I have to take him and bring him back every day. Can I get any money for this from my ex-husband?
Answer:
A Jewish divorcee is not entitled to maintenance after her divorce but where she is forced to stop work, or reduce her hours to devote herself to caring for a child with special needs, then she can file her ‘ex’ to recover expenses involved , such as travel expenses involved in taking the child to a special school. She should be entitled to some if not all of the expenses involved.
Maintenance From Estate – Handicapped Child
Question:
Is a handicapped child entitled to maintenance from a deceased’s estate ? If so, up to what age?
Answer:
The Inheritance Law says a child of the deceased who is handicapped is eligible for maintenance from his parent’s estate ‘ all the time he is handicapped..’ But the concept of a handicapped child does not appear in the above law so reference to other legislation must be made.
The National Insurance Law (Consolidated Version) says: ‘ handicapped child – a child who was handicapped in his life whether in Israel or abroad, according to the tests and conditions made by the minister and with the approval of the work and social services committee.’ However, in the appropriate National Insurance Regulations of 1988 a handicapped child is defined as a child ‘dependent on outside help, or needing constant supervision or who has a special disability and needs special medical treatment, and all before he has reached 18 years of age’.
Thus a handicapped child who is over 18 is not eligible to receive maintenance from his parent’s estate.This was stressed by the Haifa Family Court in 2001 when it rejected applications for maintenance from the deceased’s estate from his two handicapped children aged 23 and 31.
Click here to expand or collapse this section Grandparent Files For Child Maintenance Question:
My grandson has been living with me for sometime now. My daughter is divorced and has been extremely ill. The father just could not care less and was ordered to pay maintenance though he rarely does in practice.Can I bring action against the father to cover the cost of my grandson living with me?
Answer:
Yes, in the above circumstances a grandparent with whom a minor grandchild is living could join in a plea with the minor against the father for maintenance and/or for the recovery of costs associated with supporting him.
In July 2002 The Kfar Saba Family Court ordered a father to pay a grandmother temporary maintenance for the two grandchildren who were living with her after they had filed a joint plea against him. Although the mother had custody of the children in their divorce agreement a psychologist’s report presented to a youth court had stated that neither parent was capable of raising the children and that it would be preferable for them to live with the grandmother than being raised completely outside the family. The grandmother was acting as the minor’s guardian although no formal status had been given to her yet.
Child Maintenance and Alternative Medical Treatment
Question:
I am divorced. My wife has custody of our child. According to our divorce agreement which was authorized at the family court, and incorporated into a judgment, both my ex and I are equally liable for any exceptional medical expenses not covered by the ordinary health insurance. My wife Is very much into ‘alternative’ health and floods me with bills for homeopathic treatment and medicines . Do I have to pay half the cost of these?
Answer:
No – the divorce agreement obliges the father to contribute to exceptional medical expenses but as no mention is made about alternative medicine being included in this so one can assume that it is confined to conventional medicine. Accordingly, the father is not obliged to pay for half of the alternative treatment or medicines and to subsidize the mother’s preference for alternative medicine.
Note that if the wording of the agreement had been different , and alternative treatments had been specifically mentioned as binding, then the father would be obliged to contribute towards their cost.
Seventeen Year Old Leaves Home & Gets Maintenance Direct
Question:
Can a high school student who has left home get maintenance paid directly from the non-custodial parent?
Answer:
Yes! In December 2003 Tel Aviv Family Court ordered a father to pay maintenance for his seventeen year old daughter directly to her and not to her mother,who had custody. The daughter child claimed her mother’s behaviour had driven her out of the house and she had rented an apartment out of town with her boyfriend, working in the evenings to support herself , and travelling from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv to study every day. Her mother, she claimed, did not give her maintenance paid by the father. As well as ordering direct payment of maintenance to his daughter, the court ordered the father to pay part of her rent.
Child Maintenance – No Time Limit Stated
Question:
I have a judgment awarding my son, who is in my custody, maintenance. It says nothing about when his father will stop paying this maintenance. How long will my son be entitled to this support?
Answer:
The obligation to pay child maintenance stops automatically when the minor reaches 18, unless the court holds otherwise. The father does not have to apply to court to stop paying maintenance if nothing was said in the judgment about when his obligation ceases.
Child Over 18 and Not Mother Claims His Maintenance
Question:
My parents divorced many years ago and my father was ordered by the court to pay child maintenance for me until I reached 18. I am now 18 but have not yet finished high school. My father has stopped paying maintenance for me to my mother. She says she cannot manage without it but I don’t want to file him for it because I am frightened that it would spoil our relationship. Can my mother file my father for maintenance like she did when I was little?
Answer:
No ! The mother of someone who has reached the age of 18 can no longer file for maintenance on his behalf as she did when he was a minor. According to the Legal Capacity & Guardianship Law of 1962 a parent can bring legal proceedings on behalf of a minor due to his/her role as natural guardian. Once the child reaches 18 he is entitled to act on his own account – only if he wishes to do so - but his mother cannot act for him if he does not want to file for maintenance independently.
Maintenance – Between School and Army
Question:
When the court passed judgment awarding my child maintenance it said that his father would support him until the age of 18 or until he finished high school, whichever came later. When my son finished high school the maintenance stopped . His draft date has been deferred due to medical problems and he still lives with me at home. Can his father be made to pay him maintenance until he goes into the army?
Answer:
Yes – although the son himself and not the parent must file for it ! The Supreme Court set several factual assumptions relevant to claims for maintenance for 18-21 year olds. The relevant one here is that during the period between high school and being drafted into the army the level of financial support of parents towards their child is reduced to two thirds of what is was before the age of 18.
Maintenance During Army Service – Agreement Silent
Question:
I have a judgment awarding child maintenance. It says nothing about maintenance during the children’s army service. I have heard that nowadays courts set maintenance of a third for children aged between 18 and 21. Will my ‘ex’ have to continue paying some maintenance during the children’s army service?
Answer:
No! If a judgment making a father pay child maintenance is silent regarding financial support during army service then this omission works in the father’s favour . He is not obliged to carry on participating in supporting the child unless the court orders him to do so. The Supreme Court has held , however, that there is a factual assumption that the level of parental financial support during a child’s military service is reduced to a third of what it was previously . This does not give a child an automatic right to a third of the maintenance set beforehand – but is designed to make it easier to file for this.
Maintenance – Son Discharged From Army
Question:
When my son was conscripted into the army I paid him a third of his existing child maintenance , according to a court judgment. A few months ago he was discharged from the army having been declared unsuitable for service. He hangs around my ‘ex’s’ home all day, living on the few hundred shekels maintenance I pay him. Do I have to pay him any maintenance now that he is no longer in the army?
Answer:
The answer depends on the exact wording of the judgment . If for example the wording connects the payment of a third of the previous maintenance to the son’s compulsory army service when he stops serving in the army – even if he is discharged or released early before his intended period of service is expired - his father’s maintenance obligation to support him will cease, too.
Maintenance – ‘Until The Age of 21’
Question:
In my divorce agreement I agreed to pay my son a third of his child maintenance until the age of 21. The idea was that I would continue supporting him after school, during his army service. Recently, he was injured in a training accident, and released from the army. Am I bound to pay him maintenance now?
Answer:
Probably yes, because the wording in the judgment here connects the obligation to pay maintenance to the son’s age, not his army service.
Maintenance – Son Discharged From Army Early and Works
Case:
Under a maintenance judgment I am supposed to pay my son a third of his child maintenance until the age of 21. The idea was that I would continue supporting him after school, during his army service. Recently my son was discharged from the army after becoming injured in a car accident. He has now started to work. Am I bound to pay him maintenance now?
Answer:
No, but a father in this situation cannot take the law into his own hands and stop paying his son maintenance. He must make a plea for the cancellation of his maintenance obligation. This is because the judgment ties his maintenance obligation to age – reaching 21 – not the army service. However, because he has started to work this is a ground for stopping his obligation.
Daughter Discharged Early From Army – Loses Maintenance
Question:
I am an only daughter and found the whole army experience overwhelming and just couldn’t handle it emotionally, having become very insecure when my parents divorced during my adolescent years. I have now been discharged as being unsuited to serve. According to a court judgment my father is supposed to pay me a third of the maintenance he paid for me before I was conscripted during my service . Because the army discharged me early rather than me refusing to serve, will I still be entitled to maintenance up to the end of my intended army service?
Answer:
No! If the wording in the judgment connects the obligation to pay maintenance to compulsory army service, then the legal basis for claiming it will cease when the army service stops- whether due to early release or because the period of army service was completed. It does not matter if the initiative for the discharge came from the army or the conscript.
Maintenance – Army Finances Studies
Question:
My son is a computer wizard and was accepted on a special army programme whereby he ‘enlists’, it finances his university studies and he signs to serve in the army afterwards. My wife and I divorced several years ago and a court judgment obliged me to pay him maintenance till he reached 18, or finished high school or was conscripted into the army, whichever was later. Will I have to pay him maintenance during his university studies?
Answer:
The answer depends on the exact terms of this programme and the date of his formal conscription in relation to his university studies. The judgment gave three options for the continuation of the maintenance obligation, one being conscription into the army, and stated that maintenance would be paid according to the latest of the three options. According to this programme the prospective student is ‘conscripted’ into the army shortly before he starts his studies. In this case he will already be conscripted when he starts to study and accordingly the father will not be obliged to pay maintenance during his university studies.
Independent Maintenance Plea – Child Reaches Maturity
Question:
According to my divorce judgment, my ex-husband is supposed to pay my daugher child maintenence until she is 18. She suffered emotionally from the break-up, she did poorly at school, was held back a year and has not finished school yet, although she is now over 18. When she was 18 her father stopped her maintenance . Can I now file another plea for maintenance for her?
Answer:
No! As a natural guardian and custodian, a mother can file a maintenance plea on her daughter’s behalf when the child is a minor. However,once the daughter reaches 18 she must file her own, independent plea. Once over 18 a child has no automatic right to maintenance.
Maintenance and Visitation – Onus Re Contact on Parent Not Child
Question:
Can a child successfully sue his father for maintenance during his army service even if there was never any contact between them?
Answer:
Yes , in certain circumstances. For example, in 2003 Tel Aviv District Court rejected an appeal by a father against a judgment ordering him to support his adult son during his army service. The father claimed that he should be exempt from paying maintenance because his son was “rebellious” and would not see him. Rejecting the argument, the District Court held that it was the father who had prevented contact. He divorced his wife during her pregnancy and had taken no steps to make contact with his son during his childhood, and had not filed for visitation. Responsibility for parent-child contact lies with the parent, and not the child, it held. It was not surprising, given the circumstances, that the son had not sought contact with his father after years of alienation. The father was obliged to make the first move, it was held.
Child Maintenance Even When Mother Refused Abortion
Question:
Can a man legally oblige a woman to have an abortion when the pregnancy is unplanned to avoid paying child maintenance?
Answer:
No. The Supreme Court has ruled that a pregnant woman cannot be forced to have an abortion against her wishes to relieve the prospective father of the legal consequences of sex – the financial obligations of fatherhood.
Retroactive Maintenance – Known Sperm Donor
Question:
Several years ago I agreed to do a female friend of mine a ‘favour’. She was single and desperate to have children. She begged me to donate sperm, promising never to make any claims against me , financial or otherwise. We are both Jewish. Now I have just received two pleas – one for paternity and one for child maintenance. I have never had any contact with the child who is supposed to be mine but am willing to co-operate with any medical tests to prove paternity. If I am the father, will I have to pay maintenance and what about back maintenance for the last few years?
Answer:
Once biological paternity is established, or admitted by the alleged father, a Jewish man who impregnates a single woman is bound to support the child according to Jewish law.This cannot be conditioned by any agreement, oral or in writing.
Usually when a court awards maintenance it does so from the date the plea was made. If a mother has decided not to file for several years it is likely that the court will rule that she gave up the child’s right to maintenance for this period.
A case before Jerusalem Family Court in November 2001 illustrates the point. The plaintiff, a single woman, had filed the biological father of her 11 year old twins for child maintenance. The defendant claimed that he donated sperm to the plaintiff at her request and after they had made an oral agreement that she would make no financial claims against him as a father. He voluntarily underwent genetic testing which established paternity.
In its judgment, the court held that the defendant was the twins’ biological father and as such should bear the burden of supporting them according to Jewish law. It rejected the father’s argument that the plaintiff had breached the alleged agreement not to file for child maintenance and that compensation due to him for this should cancel out any maintenance . However it accepted the arguments of the defendant, represented by Adv. Amihoud Borochov, that back maintenance should not be paid for the 10 years before the plea was made, rejecting the applicant’s plea regarding this.
tel: 03-5234133, 077-3500000
fax: 03-5232251