A proposal has been put forward in Uzbekistan to revise the methodology for determining the amount of alimony. Instead of linking payments to the parent's official earnings, the initiative's authors insist on taking into account the child's age and their actual maintenance needs.
Dilnoza Kattakhonova, Deputy Prime Minister and Chair of the Committee on Family and Women, presented this idea for discussion in the Senate. She noted that some parents deliberately understate their real income or take low-paying jobs to minimize the alimony amount, putting children in a situation where the received sum is insufficient even to cover daily necessities.
To solve this problem, it is proposed to introduce the concept of a minimum consumer basket, which will be differentiated depending on the child's age group. It is planned that the minimum alimony amount will be calculated based on the cost of this established basket.
Currently, the alimony amount directly depends on the parent's income: one-quarter of the earnings is collected per child, one-third for two children, and half of the income for three or more. There is also a lower threshold according to which the payment per child must not be less than 26.5% of the minimum wage, which is currently 360.4 thousand soums.
Thus, the new approach implies that the alimony amount will be determined not only by the official salary but primarily by the necessary expenses for providing for the child. Furthermore, changes to the collection mechanism itself are being considered; according to Kattakhonova, part of these procedures is planned to be gradually transferred to the private sector, based on international experience. Currently, the Enforcement Bureau performs the main function of collecting alimony.
As an example of the difficulty in complying with requirements, employees of the Enforcement Bureau previously found a man hiding inside a tandoor in Karmaninsky district of Navoi region who was trying to evade alimony payments.
