1. Minimum standard of living (hereinafter referred to as the “MSL”) shall mean the amount of the minimum standard of living approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania in accordance with the procedure set forth by the Republic of Lithuania Law on Individual Income Security.

2. Permanent residents of the Republic of Lithuania shall mean citizens of the Republic of Lithuania whose data on the place of residence in the Republic of Lithuania or, if they have no place of residence, the data on the municipality in which they live, have been entered into the Register of Residents of the Republic of Lithuania, or aliens who permanently reside in the Republic of Lithuania.

3. Applicant shall mean one of the parents with whom a child lives by a court’s decision, or a guardian (custodian), who are permanently residing in the Republic of Lithuania and who have applied to the administrator of the Children’s Maintenance Fund for a child maintenance allowance. 

4. Debtor shall mean a person who, by a court’s decision or under a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court, each month must pay regular child maintenance, but fails to comply with the court’s decision or does not pay the full amount awarded by the court.

5. Child shall mean a person under 18 years of age permanently residing in the Republic of Lithuania, or a person over 18 years of age who has been recognised as an invalid (disabled) before reaching the age of 18.

6. Child maintenance shall mean funds required for child maintenance that a person must allocate by a court’s decision, or under a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court, and pay by way of regular payments once per month.   

7. Children’s Maintenance Fund (hereinafter referred to as the “Fund”) – state monetary funds administered by the administrator of the Children’s Maintenance Fund from which payments are made in accordance with this Law.

8. Payments from the Children’s Maintenance Fund (hereinafter referred to as the “payments from the Fund”) shall mean monetary funds paid from the funds of the Fund when implementing the commitment of the Republic of Lithuania stipulated in this Law to pay a child maintenance allowance on the grounds for and in accordance with the procedure set forth by this Law.  The payment from the Fund for a child per month shall not exceed 1.5 MSL.

1. The payments from the Fund shall be paid in accordance with the provisions of this Law only if child maintenance has been awarded by a court’s decision, or under a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court and shall be paid by way of regular payments once per month.   

2. The administrator of the Fund may be applied to with a request for payments from the Fund when a child does not receive child maintenance that has been awarded by a court’s decision or stipulated in a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court, or receives only a part thereof. The Fund shall pay child maintenance that has been awarded by the court’s decision or stipulated in a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court and, in the case the child receives only a part of the fixed child maintenance, - the difference between the amount awarded by the court’s decision or stipulated in a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court and the amount actually paid by the debtor. In both cases, the payment from the Fund for one child per month shall not exceed 1.5 MSL.

3. A bailiff who carries out the recovery of a child maintenance that has been awarded by a court’s decision or stipulated in a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court according to the provisions of the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania shall issue to a recoverer a certificate of the established form certifying that the child does not receive full maintenance awarded by the court’s decision or stipulated in a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court, or a part thereof.  

4. The payments from the Fund shall be made as long as there are grounds stipulated in this Article and until the child is entitled to child maintenance awarded by a court’s decision or a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court.

1. An applicant who has a right to apply to the administrator of the Fund with a request for payments from the Fund shall submit to the administrator of the Fund the documents listed in the description of the procedure for applying to the administrator of the Fund for payments from the Fund.

2. The payments from the Fund shall be made by decision of the administrator of the Fund.

3. The Government of the Republic of Lithuania, or an institution authorised by it, shall establish the procedure for applying to the administrator of the Fund for the payments from the Fund, the procedure for adopting a decision by the administrator concerning the payments from the Fund, the procedure for making the payments from the Fund and the procedure for suspension and termination of the payments from the Fund.

4. The amount of the payment from the Fund shall be calculated as of the day of applying to the administrator of the Fund.

5. The payments from the Fund for each previous month shall be transferred to the bank account of a child for maintenance of which the funds have been allocated, or to the bank account of an applicant.  

1. The administrator of the Fund must suspend the payments from the Fund where at least one of the following grounds exists:

2. Where the court adopts a decision to restrict parental powers or to dismiss or withdraw the guardian (custodian) from performing the duties of the guardian (custodian), the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service, which has received such decision of the court, shall, within 3 working days after the receipt of the decision of the court, send a copy of the decision to the administrator of the Fund.   

3. The administrator of the Fund shall inform the applicant in writing about the adopted decision to suspend the payments from the Fund within 3 working days from the adoption of such decision, except for the case specified in subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of this Article.

4. The payments from the Fund shall be resumed in the following cases:

1. The administrator of the Fund must terminate the payments from the Fund where at least one of the following grounds exists:

2. The applicant must inform the administrator of the Fund in writing about the circumstances referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article within 3 working days from the day he found out or must have found out about the occurrence of these circumstances.

1. The applicant may appeal against the decision of the administrator of the Fund to refuse to make payments from the Fund, to suspend or terminate the payments from the Fund to the Chief Administrative Disputes Commission within 20 working days from the receipt of the decision of the administrator of the Fund.  Filing of an appeal shall not suspend the enforcement of the decision of the administrator of the Fund.  

2. The applicant can appeal against the decision of the Chief Administrative Disputes Commission to the court in accordance with the procedure set forth in legal acts.

1. The Founder of the Fund shall be the Government of the Republic of Lithuania

2. The administrator of the Fund is a state institution authorised by the Government. The activities of the administrator of the Fund shall be regulated by the Articles of Association of the Fund approved by the Government.

3. The Fund shall be administered in compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, this Law and other laws, resolutions of the Government and other legal acts.

1) accumulate funds and make payments from the Fund;

2) administer the funds of the Fund and ensure the control of their use;

3) coordinate the activities of institutions related to the functions performed by the Fund and provide the required consultations;

4) register the data about applicants, children who received the payments from the Fund and debtors in accordance with the procedure set forth by the Government, or an institution authorised by it;

5) represent the state when recovering the payments made from the Fund in accordance with the procedure set forth by legal acts;

6) consult and inform the society about the activities of the Fund;

7) perform other functions established by legal acts.

1) to request enterprises, institutions, agencies and organisations to submit information, free of charge, required for the performance of the functions of the administrator of the Fund in accordance with the procedure set forth by legal acts;

2) to request to launch a pre-trial investigation regarding criminal liability of a debtor for avoiding to pay child maintenance awarded by the court’s decision or under a child’s (children’s) maintenance agreement approved by the court.

1. The administrator of the Fund who is making the payments from the Fund in accordance with the procedure set forth by this Law, when implementing the right of the Republic of Lithuania to request a debtor to reimburse the payments made from the Fund, shall acquire the right to recover from the debtor the payments made from the Fund and to demand a 5 per cent annual interest rate calculating from the amounts of the already made payments from the Fund since their payment in accordance with the procedure set forth in Article 3 of this Law until the complete recovery from the debtor.

2. The administrator of the Fund shall adopt a decision concerning the recovery from debtors the payments made from the Fund in accordance with the procedure for recovering from debtors the payments made from the Fund set forth by the Government, or an institution authorised by it.

3. The decision of the administrator of the Fund referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article shall be an executive document to be executed in accordance with the procedure set forth in the Republic of Lithuania Code of Civil Procedure.

4. The funds recovered in accordance with paragraphs 1-3 of this Article shall be transferred to the Fund.

5. A debtor shall have the right to appeal to the court against the decision referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article in accordance with the procedure set forth by legal acts within 15 working days since the day he found out, or should have found out, about the decision of the administrator of the Fund. 

1. The administrator of the Fund shall have the right to recover, in accordance with the procedure set forth in legal acts, the amounts paid without due grounds from the applicants on whose request the payments from the Fund were made, if the applicants provided false information or failed to notify the administrator of the Fund about the occurrence of circumstances referred to in paragraph 1 of Article 6 of this Law.  

2. The funds recovered in accordance with the procedure set forth in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be transferred to the Fund.

1. The administrator of the Fund shall notify a debtor in writing about a decision to make the payments from the Fund within 3 working days from adopting the decision. The administrator of the Fund shall specify that the state takes over the duty of the debtor to pay child maintenance and that it will seek, employing the methods stipulated in laws, to recover the amounts paid from the Fund and a 5 per cent of the annual interest rate referred to in paragraph 1 of Article 11 of this Law.

2. In case the place of residence of a debtor is unknown, information about the decision of the administrator of the Fund to make the payments from the Fund and the consequences in respect of a debtor referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be published in the official gazette Valstybės Žinios within 20 working days since the adoption of such decision.  

3. The administrator of the Fund shall perform other duties established by legal acts.

1. The Fund’s budget shall comprise:

2. The funds of the Fund that were not used throughout the period of one year, except for those specified in subparagraph 1 of paragraph 1 of this Article, shall be used for the purposes stipulated in this Law.  

1. The Government shall, by 1 October 2007:

2. By 1 July 2007, the Government, or an institution authorised by it, shall approve: