Maintenance payments: automatic payment becomes systematic regardless of the type of judgment

Before 1^er March 2022, the intermediary payment of maintenance payments by the Family Allowance Funds (CAF) and the Agricultural Social Mutual Societies (MSA) was put in place at the request of at least one of the two parents or at the initiative of the judge in case of domestic violence.

In March 2022, the Ministry of Justice created a new public maintenance service with the systematization of the payment, through the Agency for the Recovery and Intermediation of Maintenance (Aripa), of maintenance payments fixed by divorce court decisions.

Since 1^er January 2023, the systematic introduction of the payment mechanism is extended and concerns all maintenance payments provided for in an enforceable title, even without a divorce decision. As stipulated in the Order in Council issued in Official Journal of 25 February 2022, financial intermediation becomes automatic as soon as maintenance is fixed, whatever the type of decision (judicial divorce, divorce by mutual extra-judicial consent, decision of the judge concerning the exercise of parental authority for unmarried or divorced parents, enforcement order issued by the FCA...). Unless both parents jointly oppose it or the judge dismisses it.

How does financial intermediation work?

Unless both former spouses refuse, maintenance payments are automatically paid through the Agency for the Recovery and Intermediation of Maintenance Payments (Aripa) managed by the Family Allowance Fund (CAF) and the Agricultural Social Mutual Society (MSA).

The court registry shall forward the court decision directly to Aripa. The CAF or the MSA then makes contact with the parents to organize the financial intermediation.

Every month, the Collection Agency is responsible for collecting directly the amount of the pension set by the judge from the parent who pays the pension (debtor) to pay it back to the parent who is to receive it (creditor). In the event of unpaid debts and within the first month of delay, Aripa will initiate recovery proceedings against the defaulting spouse.

Pending recovery of the amount due, the Support Recovery Agency pays the creditor parent the family support allowance of € 116.11 per month per child.