In this Master’s Thesis entitled “Divorce, Maintenance and the Role of the Social Work Centre” I explored the chosen field and topic with the help of theoretical sources and research.
In the theoretical part, I described in detail the legal concept of maintenance as a common financial form of obligation intended to provide material living conditions for a family member, especially for a child or an adult who cannot support themselves. Maintenance is protected under the enforcement law and criminal law and is also considered in the law of succession. The Social Work Centre (SWC) has, within its respective competencies, an important role in the process of establishing maintenance, as well as within the framework of further harmonisation, and forwarding and keeping records up until the conditions for the entitlement to that right are no longer met. The role of the SWC is therefore important at an early stage in dealings with cases of divorce or dissolution of cohabiting unions because it
usually also provides the point of first contact with an institution when spouses or unmarried cohabiting partners seek necessary information. The theoretical part introduces in detail the legal concept of maintenance, the establishment of entitlement to maintenance with a special
focus on child maintenance obligations, annual adjustments that are carried out in accordance with consumer price fluctuations, and the case-law regarding the establishment of an adequate amount of maintenance obligations while considering the maintenance creditor’s needs as well as the maintenance debtor’s material and earning capacity. In establishing the maintenance creditor’s needs and assessing the amount of maintenance, the court must determine what amount is suitable to ensure the successful physical and mental development of the child. Maintenance must include the living costs of the child, especially the costs of
accommodation, food, clothing, shoes, childcare, holidays, entertainment, and other special needs.
The research part of the thesis aimed to find out how common the agreements between the parents after the divorce or the dissolution of the cohabiting union are, whether or not these agreements are beneficial to children, whether or not the agreed amount of the maintenance is suitable with regards to the child’s needs, to research non-payment of the maintenance and how it affects the family financial situation, how families are handled within the system when
they don’t receive maintenance payments, as well as the reasons for non-payment, improvement of the maintenance payment system, important changes, and suggestions for
further improvements of the system.
I conducted qualitative research and acquired the data by using structured interviews with four social workers employed at the Gornja Radgona Unit and the Lendava Unit of the Pomurje SWC. I also carried out structured interviews with parents from dissolved marriages and cohabiting unions. I conducted a qualitative analysis of the acquired data and recorded the results. At the end of the thesis, the existing changes that work well in the arrangement of maintenance which the interviewed social workers and parents outlined, and suggestions for improving the system.
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