Published: 2023-03-08

On the importance of maintenance in the social welfare system

Iwona Sierpowska
The Opole Studies in Administration and Law
Section: Articles
DOI https://doi.org/10.25167/osap.4897

Abstract

Maintenance is a form of fulfilment of the maintenance duty whose purpose is to provide means of subsistence to a family member who cannot meet his or her reasonable needs independently. In public law, maintenance is also given other meanings, in particular its precedence over social benefits is emphasised. Poland’s Social Assistance Act treats maintenance as the personal income of a child entitled to it and, on the part of the person named as the debtor, as an expense deductible from income. Past failure to fulfil the maintenance duty by a resident of a social welfare home is considered as a premise for the exemption of his/her descendants from the fee for staying in the facility. The function of maintenance is recognised in the fact that heads of social welfare centres have the right to bring legal action for maintenance claims on behalf of citizens. Maintenance appears as a tool to protect the social order and axiological order of the social welfare system.

 

Keywords:

maintenance, income in social welfare, social welfare home fee

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Sierpowska, I. (2023). On the importance of maintenance in the social welfare system. The Opole Studies in Administration and Law, 20(2), 87–101. https://doi.org/10.25167/osap.4897

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