The right to maintenance and the right to raise a child: problems of provision in practice

Purpose of the study. The article examines the problems of theory and practice caused by the inability of parents to raise a child due to their arrears in alimony. The absence of a definition of the concept of malicious evasion of alimony payments in the law does not allow for a correct differentiation of the actions of parents who are malicious defaulters and parents who cannot fulfill their obligations to support a child for objective reasons. In order to implement the principle of priority protection of children’s rights, protecting their right to receive maintenance, the author proves the need to create an institution of an alimony fund, from which children who do not receive maintenance from their parents could receive it from the state. It is determined that such a payment does not exempt parents from fulfilling their obligations to support a child; the funds received from the state must be returned after the reasons for the parents’ failure to pay funds for their child have disappeared.