ATTENTION! Text translated automatically from the Polish version.
Parents are obligated to provide maintenance benefits to a child who is not yet able to maintain themselves independently, unless the income from the child’s property is sufficient to cover the costs of their maintenance and upbringing. This means, among other things, that maintenance must be paid for a child even when they are already an adult but, for example, still studying. The obligation to pay maintenance may persist even until the child’s death, if they never become independent (e.g. due to illness).
Although parents are obligated to provide maintenance to the child first (before other relatives such as grandparents), if an adult child enters into a marriage, they must first demand maintenance from their spouse.
Looking back, a child is entitled to maintenance from the moment of birth. However, even during pregnancy a wife may demand increased maintenance from her husband due to her pregnancy.
An unmarried woman may demand from the father of the conceived child that he contribute an appropriate sum of money even before the birth of the child, covering three months of maintenance for the mother during childbirth and three months of maintenance for the child after birth. Generally, a father who is not the mother’s husband is obligated to contribute an appropriate amount to covering the expenses related to pregnancy and childbirth. These claims are available to the mother even in the event that the child was born dead.