Maintenance and Custody of Children

National Institute for Health and Welfare receives statistical data from municipalities on children receiving maintenance allowance, liable parents, child maintenance payments and paid maintenance allowances. In addition, data are collected on the investigation and establishment of paternity, child custody and access rights. The data are updated annually in May/June.

Maintenance and custody of Children 2008

At the end of 2008, child maintenance allowance was paid to 93 703 children. The number of children receiving maintenance allowance started to decrease in 2000, and the decrease continued in 2008, the number being 2.5 per cent lower than in the previous year, as in the year before. Maintenance allowance payments totalled EUR 140.5 million. A total of EUR 65.0 million was recovered from liable parents, of which EUR 58.3 million was paid to municipalities as a recompense for maintenance allowance payments, and EUR 6.7 million was paid as maintenance payments to children.

Figure 1. Recipients of child maintenance allowance in the 0−17 age group in 1990−2008, %

Over the years, maintenance payment debt to be recovered from liable parents by municipalities has amounted to EUR 232.2 million, of which the maintenance payment debt to be paid to the municipalities accounted for EUR 212.9 million, and the maintenance payments to be paid to children accounted for EUR 19.2 million. In 2008, maintenance debt that became time-barred totalled EUR 20.1 million. The maintenance liability of 2566 liable parents expired due to maintenance debt becoming time-barred.

Table. 1 Key data on child maintenance and custody 2001-2007

_{(* Fixed price, in 2008 currency.}

Compared with previous years, a regional analysis reveals no major changes in the numbers of children in receipt of maintenance allowance. The shares vary across regions, between 4.8 and 10.5 per cent.

Figure 2. Recipients of child maintenance allowance in the 0−17 age group by region in 2008, %

In 2008, Social Welfare Boards confirmed a total of 35 693 maintenance agreements. The most common amounts of maintenance payment confirmed were under EUR 67.28 per month and EUR 100.9-134.5 per month (some 20% of the agreements).

In 2008, the paternity of 23 722 children born out of wedlock was established. In nearly all cases, the paternity was established through acknowledgement; only 62 cases involved a court decision. Social Welfare Boards confirmed a total of 35 241 custody agreements in 2008. Of the agreements, 93 per cent concerned joint custody. The mother alone was entrusted with the care of the child in 6 per cent and the father alone in 1 per cent of cases. Dual residence (e.g. a child spends alternating weeks in each parent's home) is arranged with an extended agreement on right of access. 2008 was the first year data on dual residence were collected and only a few municipalities were able to provide this information. Based on data obtained from municipalities, agreements on dual residence were made for a total of 591 children in 87 municipalities.

The information is based on data submitted by municipalities to the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) on child maintenance and custody concerning the year 2008. The payment of and compilation of statistics on child maintenance allowance was transferred to Kela (the Social Insurance Institution of Finland) on 1 April 2009. From 2009 onwards, THL will collect statistical data from municipalities concerning child custody only. Data on both child maintenance and child custody will continue to be available in the SOTKAnet web service. The service can be found at www.sotkanet.fi. The indicators can be retrieved, for instance, by using the keywords 'child maintenance' and 'child custody'.

• Legal basis, concepts and definitions
• Appendix table 1: Child Maintenance and Custody 2002-2008
• Appendix table 2: Child maintenance 2007-2008 by municipality and region
  Download tables 2 and 3 in PDF format here (291 kt)
• Whole Statistical Report (pdf, 284 kt)

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