The amount of reimbursement to the state for the cost of child maintenance by liable persons has increased in the Vitebsk region to 61.3%
22/12/20110 views
22 December, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. The amount of funds reimbursed to the state by obligated persons for the maintenance and upbringing of children in the Vitebsk region has increased to 61.3%, the deputy chairperson of the commission for juvenile affairs of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Tamara Olekhnovich, told a BELTA correspondent.
In recent years, thanks to the interaction of commissions for juvenile affairs, local authorities, and internal affairs bodies, it has been possible to significantly increase the amount of funds reimbursed by obligated persons for the upbringing and maintenance of their children. If at the beginning of 2007, 28% of the funds were reimbursed in the region, then currently it is already 61.3%. 286 people have been brought to criminal liability for parents evading child support or reimbursement of expenses incurred by the state for the maintenance of children under state care, 227 have been sent to therapeutic labour rehabilitation centres for alcoholism treatment.
Since the beginning of the current year, courts in the Vitebsk region have granted claims and restored parental rights to 52 citizens. Despite the fact that the number of persons restoring their parental rights through court is slightly increasing, Tamara Olekhnovich considers this figure insignificant. She sees the reason in the fact that for most parents deprived of parental rights, the status of their children as abandoned is not something shameful. "They approach it parasitically, seeing primarily material benefits: state assistance during education, the right to preferential housing, therefore they are in no hurry to restore their parental rights," she believes.
In the Vitebsk region, over 4 years and 9 months of the operation of Decree No. 18 "On additional measures for state protection of children in dysfunctional families," 20,103 children from 11,964 families were recognised as being in a socially dangerous situation. As Tamara Olekhnovich noted, thanks to the implementation of the provisions of the decree, which allows for the early detection of family dysfunction and helps parents to correct their ways, it was possible to remove 60% of children from the records.
However, over almost five years, 3,156 children were recognized as needing state protection and removed from their parents due to threats to their lives and health. The interviewee believes it is important that the mechanisms of Decree No. 18 at this stage also give negligent parents a chance to reform without resorting to such a severe measure as deprivation of parental rights: approximately half of the children removed are returned to their biological families. "The main task that Decree No. 18 sets before us is to save the family, to help people who have found themselves in a difficult life situation to return to a normal life, and for children to keep their relatives," emphasized Tamara Olekhnovich.
According to data as of December 1, in the region, 3,830 children from 2,329 families were recognized as being in a socially dangerous situation, 664 children from 403 families were taken under state protection, and 297 children were granted the status of children left without parental care. 3,847 individuals were recognized as obligated to reimburse the state for the costs of child maintenance, of whom 2,942 are employed, with 60% having no unexcused absences, 700 are in addiction treatment facilities, and 221 are not reimbursing costs because they are in places of detention or on parental leave. -0-
BELTA