File photo
Photo: Shutterstock
Supreme Court: Mothers to share child support payments
Supreme Court rules child support will be determined based on the financial situation of each parent to remedy situation in which fathers are left without necessary resources to ensure child's welfare.
Divorced mothers in joint-custody agreements with fathers will now have to share child support payments for children aged 6-15, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.
So far, men have customarily paid child support to women, even if the two shared custody and the mother's income was higher than that of the father.
This ruling in principle was made by an extended panel of seven judges on two petitions by fathers who claimed their ex-wives were either making more money than they were or the same amount, yet they were still required to pay child support.
"The existing law, which requires the father to bear the necessary child support payments on his own, might leave the father without the resources he needs to ensure the child's welfare while staying with him, as well as create real financial difficulty for the father himself," the judges wrote in their ruling.
The court therefore decided both parents would "share child support for their children equally, with the division between them being determined based on their relative financial situation considering all factors, including salary."
Child support for children under 6, meanwhile, will remain the sole responsibility of the father.
Judge Noam Sohlberg stated in the ruling that, "Truth be told: the very core of family law in Israel—marriage and divorce law—is characterized by inequality between men and women. According to Jewish law, the gett (divorce) is in the man's hands—if he wants it, he'll give it; if he doesn't, he can refuse. However, this does not justify unequal division of child support."
