Note: translated from Polish
Article 135 § 3 point 3 of the Family and Guardianship Code clearly emphasizes that the benefit from social assistance or the maintenance fund does not affect the scope of maintenance payments.
Thus, the legislator clearly indicated that the benefits paid under the 800+ programme cannot be treated as a substitute for the maintenance obligation imposed on the obligated persons, nor can they be the basis for its reduction. Such an interpretation is also supported by the constitutional principle of social justice and the obligation to protect the best interests of the child.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, which have been articulated by courts in Polish jurisprudence over the years. Namely, in the case of justified needs related to the child's upbringing (m.in. housing, food or medicines), they can be covered by the child-raising benefit received. The matter becomes a bit more complicated when we start analyzing justified needs, because they will not be the same in every case, because it is influenced by a number of factors, m.in. parents' earnings, quality of life.
The Court emphasised that Article 135 § 3 point 3 of the Family and Guardianship Code provides that the fact that one of the parents receives the amount of PLN 800 per month as part of state aid cannot be the basis for reducing the scope of his or her participation in the child's maintenance costs. Moreover, the child-raising benefit should not be classified as the parent's income, which is then the basis for determining the maintenance obligation in relation to the child, because it is intended to ensure the child's basic living needs, which was emphasized by the District Court in Olsztyn in the judgment of 4 November 2020 ref. no. VI RCa 165/20.
Therefore, if the child's needs are fully financed only by the maintenance obligation of both parents, the child-raising benefit would de facto become an additional "profit" of the parent receiving the funds, which is not justified by the child's real needs. The above position was taken by the District Court in Toruń in the judgment of 21 March 2024, file no. III RC 837/23.