crunchynut

Hi, does anyone know how child support works in Germany?Is it similar to the UK child support system? Any help would be appreciated. I am a parent with care chasing child support from my ex who has recently moved to Germany to work and is refusing to support our child, now that he is out of the UK child support grasp. I'd rather not involve German courts, so need an idea of what he should be doing/contributing whilst in Germany.

Mitzyboy

Do you know where he lives and works?
If so, have you asked Child support in the UK if they have any agreements with Germany for this kind of thing?

Just found this, so there is definately an infrastructure there
http://www.childpolicyintl.org/child...04Germany.html

crunchynut

Hello, yes I know where he lives and works, and the UK has a reciprocal child maintenance agreement with most countries, Germany is one of them. I don't know how successful these agreements are, but wanted to know where Germany stood regarding committment of the non-resident parent.

I'll look on the website you gave me, many thanks for taking the time to help.

Kind regards

MrNosey

Germany takes this seriously. The amount that an absent parent must pay depends on their income, how many children, their ages, etc and is prescribed by law (there's a fairly simple equation).
You should follow this up.

ALICE-EMMA

Hi everyone,
yes, Germany does take child maintenance seriously and its based on such a practical equation but the reality can sometimes be very different....
Last year my husband and i seperated after being married and living in Germany for 22 years. The three children live with me and as I've only been working on temporary, freelance contracts in the last five years, i thought i could at least get the minimum maintenance to help start a new life with three children in Germany. Firstly, if you are on low income/no income your child maintenance case is moved from the "jugendtamt" to the care of the jobcenter which is a definite disadvantage. My husbands expensive appartment and any debts he could produce were generously looked at and I was told that although he still works full-time in a German bank he can only pay 115 euros for three children a month!
Of course, it doesn' always work like this but my experience of trying to claim maintenance from an unreluctant father in Germany is this-the system is very long-winded, user-unfriendly and certainly lacks the "human touch" that I so miss about England. Don't get me wrong, I have immensly enjoyed living in Germany half of my life, value many Germany attributes and qualities and above all, love my children dearly BUT i have just been through hell here for the last six monthes with extreme poverty that I would never imagined possible. The bottom line is I never want to be that dependant again and I cannot reccomend the German system in reality.
Working hard for a better future,
Alice

DandNHill

If it's of any help, I spoke to the CSA about maintenance my ex (in UK) would pay me once I'm living in Canada.
They advised that the reciprocal agreements they have with most countries are to obtain arrears if there are any but they can't put new assessments in place (this was a manager who told me)

Hope that helps