What You Need to Know about Child Raising Fee

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author/ LiDan

 Family Law Team of Guantao Lawfirm,

 Shanghai,China 

When divorce is unavoidable, child supporting fee is one of the issues that need to be solved and the dispute of child supporting fee after divorce seems to be on the increase recent years. This article hopefully will clarify some popular misunderstandings about child supporting fee.

What constitutes child raising fee

As far as I am concerned, all the clients who ask me for divorce advice have misunderstandings about what constitutes child raising fee and more often than not, the clients believe child supporting fee is only about the daily life expenses of the child. 

As a matter of fact, in China, the child supporting fee covers all the necessary expenses of the child, the living expense, the education fee, the medicare fee and etc. 

Of course, you may negotiate separataely about the oversea education fee or the private school tuitiuon fee, the significant medicare expenses that may occur in the future and any other costs that you believe necessary for the child raising apart from the living cost. 

The amount of child raising fee

Lots of clients know the 20% to 30% of the total monthly income but do not know two other key factors will be taken into consideration when the court decides the amount of the raising fee, the real need of the child and the actual living standard of the place where the child is. It is understandable that each parent wants to give the best to the child but what is the best has no limits and the law only supports the amount to satisfy the basic needs of the child.

In one of my cases, the counter party purchased more than 2,000 yuan clothes for the child within one month and claimed for 30% of my client’s mothly income after tax (which is around 100,000 yuan RMB). However, the court finally decides the amount of the child raising fee is 2,500 yuan RMB as the child is studying at the public elementary school and the 2,000 yuan clothes can not be identified as necesssary cost of the child.

However, the amount of the child raising fee is not unchangeble and the party who directly rasises the child may ask for the increase of the raising fee if one of the following situations occurs:

• The amount of the raising fee fails to catch up with the ever increasing local living standard;

• The real need of the child is in excess of the raising fee decided during the divorce because of the extra cost that occurs when the child suffers from a disease or because of the education the child recieves;

• Other situation that may exists which makes it necessary for the increase in the child raising fee.

Therefore, the increase in the amount of the child raising fee is possible with a justified reason.

The terms of payment 

Regular payment usually on a monthly base is demanded by law but a one time lump of payment is also allowed if both parties agree to and the other party can afford such a one time payment. 

Lots of my clients especially female clients prefer a once in all payment as they are worried the other parties’ failuire to make the regular payment when they get married again. But the male party is worried that the once in all payment will not be used for the child. Therefore, my advice is that the child raising fee may be set off against the compensation that the party who does not directly raises the child needs to pay if there exists such a compensation. The disadvantage about one time payment is that the chance of adjustment like an 

increase in the amount of the child raising fee is greatly lessensed. So regular payment or one time payment needs to be evaluated when the other party agrees to either method of payment.

The visitation right and the payment of child raising fee

I am often asked by lots of clients the same question whether she or he can deny the other party’s visiting the child if he or she fails to pay or delays in paying the child raising fee. The answer is “NO”. The visitation right is independent of the child raising fee payment and non payment of the child raising fee does not make it a justified reason to deprive the party of the visitation right.

However, if the divorce is solved at the court, the child raising party can go directly to the court’s enforcement division to get the payment paid with either a mediation paper or a divorce judgment issued by the court.

Furthermore, child raising fee needs to be paid during the separation even if the party who lives with the child has most of the marital assets in his or her hands. The payment of child raising fee stops when the child reaches 18 years old. An extension of payment is possible after the child comes of age if an agreement is reached between the couple or if any of the situations provided by the law exists: the adult child loses the labor ability or even if the adult child does not lose the labor ability completely but his or her income is not sufficient to cover the living expenses; the adult child is still at school; the adult child does lack the ablility and the qualifications to live independently. However, such an extension of child raising fee payment need to satisfy two prerequisite conditions: the adult child has not lived independently and the parent has the ability to pay. 

Advice for child raising fee

Try to negotiate as high as possible the amount of child raising fee when the other party is capable and is still willing to pay. 

Use the yearly increase term if the amount is not high enough to cover the possible costs that may occur in the future. 

If the other party prefers a one time lump payment but worries the money may not be used on the child, buy an insurance for the benefit of the child with one time payment. 

If you are worried about the future payment when the other party gets married again with another child, go to court to have the child raising fee settled so that the court’s enforcement can be resorted to if the other party fails to pay the child raising fee.

The child raising fee is paid for the child’s sake which can not be waived and the waive clause in the divorce agreement will not stop the child filing a separate lawsuit for the child raising fee in the future. Therefore, always have a consideration for the non payment of child raising fee.