AKMV 
Pursuant to Section 80 of Act No. 36/2005 Coll., the Family Act (hereinafter referred to as the „Family Act“): „The Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family may provide substitute child maintenance to ensure the support of the entitled person pursuant to a special regulation.“
„According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has the right to a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development. Parents, or other persons responsible for the child, bear the primary responsibility to secure, within their abilities and financial capacities, the conditions of living necessary for the child’s development. States Parties to the Convention, however, are required to take appropriate measures, in accordance with national conditions and within their means, to assist parents and other persons responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing, and housing (Art. 27). Pursuant to this Article, the Slovak Republic established a substitute child maintenance fund by Act No. 201/2008 Coll., which supplements the fulfillment of the maintenance obligation on behalf of the liable person in cases where this maintenance obligation is not fulfilled voluntarily, either at all or in full. The purpose of substitute child maintenance is to ensure that the entitled child is not left without the means for their support, while the claims arising from the provided allowances are transferred to the State.“ (Source: Pavelková, B. The Family Act. Commentary. 3rd edition. Bratislava: C. H. Beck, 2019, p. 513)
„Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has the right to a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development. Parents or other persons responsible for the child have the primary responsibility to secure, within their abilities and financial capacities, the conditions of living necessary for the child’s development. States Parties to the Convention, however, are required, within their means, to take appropriate measures to assist parents and other persons responsible for the child to implement this right and shall, in case of need, provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing, and housing (Art. 27). Pursuant to this Article, the Slovak Republic established a substitute child maintenance fund by Act No. 201/2008 Coll., which supplements the fulfillment of the maintenance obligation on behalf of the liable person in cases where this maintenance obligation is not fulfilled voluntarily, either at all or in full. The purpose of substitute child maintenance is to ensure that the entitled child is not left without the means for their support, with the claims arising from the provided allowances being transferred to the State.“ (Source: Pavelková, B. Family Act. Commentary. 3rd edition. Bratislava: C. H. Beck, 2019, p. 513)
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Who is entitled to substitute child maintenance?
Act No. 201/2008 Coll. on Substitute Child Maintenance (hereinafter referred to as the „Act on Substitute Child Maintenance“) exhaustively lays down in Section 2 the conditions upon the fulfillment of which the entitled person has a claim to substitute child maintenance:
„An entitled person shall be entitled to substitute child maintenance if:
a) meets one of the following conditions:
- a petition for the commencement of enforcement proceedings has been submitted to the court for the recovery of a maintenance claim due to the fact that a parent of the entitled person or another natural person ordered by a court decision to pay maintenance to the entitled person (hereinafter referred to as the „liable person“) fails to fulfill their maintenance obligation in full, within the time limit and in the manner specified by the court decision; for the purposes of this Act, the time limit for fulfilling the maintenance obligation shall be deemed to have been met if the liable person fulfills the maintenance obligation in full after the time limit specified by the court decision, no later than by the end of the relevant calendar month,
- proves by a certificate issued by the Centre for the International Legal Protection of Children and Youth (hereinafter referred to as the „Centre“) as a receiving body and a transmitting body in the field of maintenance recovery under a special regulation or international conventions that
i. the petition for the enforcement of a decision regarding maintenance recovery has been forwarded to the competent receiving body abroad, or
ii. maintenance recovery from abroad is not possible; this shall not apply if maintenance recovery from abroad is not possible due to a failure on the part of the applicant for substitute child maintenance to cooperate with the Centre, - the entitled person has not become entitled to an orphan’s pension or an orphan’s service pension,
- the total amount of the orphan’s pension and orphan’s service pension for one parent is lower than 0.7 times the subsistence minimum amount for a dependent child,
- the liable person has been ordered by a court decision to remit maintenance for the entitled person to the Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (hereinafter referred to as the „Office“),
b) fulfills compulsory school attendance, if the entitled person is a child who is obliged to fulfill compulsory school attendance; this condition shall be deemed to be met unless a written notification from the school principal indicates that the legal guardian fails to ensure proper compulsory school attendance for this entitled person,
c) resides:
- in the territory of the Slovak Republic, or
- outside the territory of the Slovak Republic due to studies abroad, and
d) maintains in the territory of the Slovak Republic:
- permanent residence, or
- temporary residence, if the entitled person is a person who has been granted subsidiary protection“
The amount of substitute child maintenance
- „If the liable person fails to fulfill their maintenance obligation in full, substitute child maintenance shall be provided in the amount specified by the court decision, or in the amount of the difference between the amount of maintenance specified by the court decision and the amount of maintenance paid by the liable person.
- If the entitled person has not become entitled to an orphan’s pension or an orphan’s service pension, substitute child maintenance shall be provided in the amount of 0.7 times the subsistence minimum amount for a dependent child.
- If the entitled person has become entitled to such a pension, substitute child maintenance shall be provided in the amount of the difference between 0.7 times the subsistence minimum amount for a dependent child and the total amount of the orphan’s pension and orphan’s service pension for one parent.
- In the case of a child placed in substitute family care, the amount of substitute child maintenance shall equal the amount of maintenance determined by the court decision.“ (EPI: Commentary on Act No. 201/2008 Coll. – Act on Substitute Child Maintenance)
Suspension of payment of substitute child maintenance and change in the amount of substitute child maintenance
Pursuant to Section 9(1) of the Act on Substitute Child Maintenance: „The Office shall suspend the payment of substitute child maintenance if:
- an entity referred to in Section 12(2) fails to comply with the obligation under Section 12(2),
- grounds arise to investigate the continued entitlement to substitute child maintenance and its payment,
- the recipient of substitute child maintenance requests the suspension of payment of substitute child maintenance.“
Section 12(2) of the Act on Substitute Child Maintenance provides:
„For the purpose of assessing the entitlement to substitute child maintenance, upon request of the Office
a. 1. The Social Insurance Agency is obliged to submit a certificate stating the amount of the orphan’s pension, a certificate of non-granting of the orphan’s pension, or a certificate of withdrawal of the orphan’s pension,
b. 2. the social security unit or the Military Social Security Office is obliged to submit a certificate stating the amount of the orphan’s service pension, a certificate of non-granting of the orphan’s service pension, or a certificate of withdrawal of the orphan’s service pension.“
Pursuant to Section 9(3) of the Act on Substitute Child Maintenance: „The Office shall increase or decrease the substitute child maintenance, if the facts decisive for determining its amount change, from the first day of the calendar month in which the change in the facts decisive for determining its amount occurred.“
In Decision No. 7Sžsk/22/2019, the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic held: „Pursuant to the legal regulation of the Act on Substitute Child Maintenance, the Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family is a state administration body in the field of labour, social affairs, and family, and it falls within its competence to decide whether the conditions are met for issuing a decision on the obligation of the recipient of substitute child maintenance to return the substitute child maintenance, or a part thereof, which was paid to them unduly or was provided in a higher amount than that to which they were entitled. For this purpose, the legislature grants the Office the authority to reassess the fulfillment of statutory conditions for the continued receipt of substitute child maintenance and, at the same time, imposes on it the obligation to obtain sufficient factual findings proving that the substitute child maintenance was paid to the recipient without a legal ground, either in full or in part beyond what was due to them, pursuant to the legal regulation of the Act on Substitute Child Maintenance. From the aforementioned legal regulation, a statutory obligation simultaneously arises for the recipient of substitute child maintenance to notify the Office of all facts relating to the granted entitlement to substitute child maintenance.“
Termination of entitlement to substitute child maintenance
According to the Explanatory Memorandum to the Act on Substitute Child Maintenance: „Section 7: It is proposed to regulate the conditions for the cessation of entitlement to substitute child maintenance. The objective is, inter alia, to resolve situations where under the current legal state any amount paid by the liable person during three months suffices to suspend the provision of substitute child maintenance. In practice, this causes situations where the liable person pays a minimal amount, the payment of substitute child maintenance is suspended, the entitled person once again begins seeking enforcement of the maintenance obligation for at least three months, substitute child maintenance is granted to them (upon repeated documentation), and the liable person again pays a minimal amount. Such a practice does not provide a solution to the entitled person’s situation and excessively burdens them with submitting documentation attached to the application even several times a year.“
Pursuant to Section 7(1) of the Act on Substitute Child Maintenance: „Entitlement to substitute child maintenance shall cease if
a. 1. the entitled person ceases to satisfy the conditions under Section 2,
b. 2. the liable person commences performance of the maintenance obligation towards the entitled person; performance of the maintenance obligation shall be deemed to be its performance in full amount for at least two months, within the period and in the manner specified by the court decision, or
c. 3. the natural person to whom the Office pays substitute child maintenance (hereinafter referred to as the ‘recipient of substitute child maintenance’) fails to comply with the obligation under Section 12(1)(c).“
