Maintenance advance

You are a single parent and bear most of the responsibility alone? And you also have financial worries after the separation because the child support payments are not forthcoming? What happens if the other parent does not pay child support, only partially or not regularly? In these cases, you can apply for advance maintenance payments. You can find all important information on the benefit and application here.

Your local child support advance office will assist you with the application process if needed.

The maintenance advance is a substitute payment for missing maintenance payments of the other parent. If it would actually be possible for the other parent to pay maintenance, the state reclaims the maintenance advance paid.

Maintenance advance is paid by the state on a provisional basis. The state advances the money if the maintenance-obliging ex-partner or the ex-partner does not pay or cannot pay, and reclaims it to the extent of the financial possibilities from the other parent.

If the other parent is solvent, the paid maintenance advance is reclaimed from him by the state.

To find out whether the defaulting parent is solvent, he is requested to disclose the income situation. If the information is refused, the maintenance advance office can query information, for example, about the income, with the employer, tax office, insurance companies and social security agencies. If necessary, it can come to the complaint and also to the execution.

The maintenance advance is, however, only repayable by the parent liable for maintenance if he is financially able to do so.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the recovery from the parent liable for maintenance is usually a matter for the NRW State Office of Finance. You can find a lot of important information about this on the pages of the Landesamt für Finanzen.

Not only can you easily apply for advance maintenance payments completely digitally via the application link, but you can also, for example, quickly and easily determine whether you meet the basic requirements for the payment of advance maintenance:

Your child has a legal right to advance maintenance payments if no maintenance is paid or if maintenance is not paid regularly. It is then used to financially secure the basic needs of the child. These include costs for food, clothing, housing, hobbies and leisure activities, schooling and pocket money. Your child has a right to grow up well provided for. Therefore, you should not refrain from applying for the maintenance advance if your child meets the requirements for it. Your local maintenance advance office will assist you with the application if necessary.