Maintenance, compensatory benefit: what differences?

Verified 31 May 2023 - Legal and Administrative Information Directorate (Prime Minister)

  • One maintenance is financial assistance paid to a person to whom there is maintenance obligation to enable him to support himself (food, housing, care...).
    A child, a parent, a step-parent, a former spouse can apply for this support. A spouse who is separated from the other spouse may also claim maintenance under the duty of care.
    This assistance may be financial or nature (obligation to house, feed and maintain, abandonment of property in usufruct...).
    Support is paid every month.
    Sound amount can be revalued each year on the basis of a calculation formula indicated in the court decision or parental agreement.
    In case of death of the person who is debtor, pension cease to be paid.
  • The compensatory benefit makes it possible to compensate for the drop in the standard of living of one of the spouses as a result of divorce.
    It may be due during a divorce by mutual consent or a judicial divorce.
    It can be claimed only in the event of divorce. The concubines and Civil partnership partners can't ask for it.
    The compensatory benefit is generally paid in the form of a capital or a rent. It can also be paid in other forms such as the allocation of ownership of property, one right of abode or of usufruct for example.
    Its amount is determined according to the needs of the spouse to whom it is paid and the resources of the other.
    Sound amount can be revalued each year on the basis of a calculation formula indicated in the court decision or in the divorce agreement.
    In case of death of the person who is debtor, heirs may be forced to continue paying the compensatory benefit.

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