Trends are disappointing
Despite the fact that the government of the Republic of Lithuania in 2023 was headed by the former head of the Ministry of Health, Evika Silina, who, it would seem, is well aware of the topic, it is now that negative dynamics have become clearly visible.
The number of debtors to the fund has increased slightly over the past year – from 41,930 in 2022 to 41,959 in 2023. Against this background, the number of applicants who were provided with funds for maintenance decreased – from 27,248 to 26,438. If we count children, then there were also fewer of them – from 43,280 to 42,207.
In financial terms, the year before last the payments amounted to 53,271,058 euros, last year – 51,089,011 euros. Of the last amount, 81.9% is the fee contributed by the budget. That is, the entire country collectively pays for abandoned children.
The amount that alimony workers owe to the state is 557,303,424 euros, of which 75.78% is the principal debt, 24.13% is legal interest.
At the same time, persistent non-payers of alimony do not particularly risk anything. If in 2021 1,306 applications to initiate criminal proceedings were sent, then in 2023 – only 357. Accordingly, 73 and 16 sentences came into force.
However, from May 1, 2021, debtors are deprived of the opportunity to play gambling, including interactive ones, as well as participate in online lotteries. When entering a casino, including the Internet, you must provide identification, and the details of alimony workers are entered into the restricted register.
They are also limited in their rights to drive transport – road and water (4,024 people since 2018).
Collective portrait of a homeless person
In total, there are 288,677 cases of collection of funds in Latvia, and only a minority – 24% – relate to “children’s” money. The majority of debtors – 53% – have criminal records, and 41% were subject to imprisonment.
It is understood that from 75 to 80 percent do not have permanent income, property and a registered workplace, another 16% do not have a declared place of residence.
However, mostly these same people are, one might say, in the prime of life – 70% are under 50 years of age. Only 15% have an official disability status.
To be fair, it should be noted that since 2017, debtors – whether under pressure or from a suddenly awakened conscience – have asked 9,789 times to conclude an agreement on the procedure for paying maintenance and legal interest. Although it is not a fact that they then kept their word.
What do they live off of?
One of the indicators of the share of the shadow economy in Latvia is the growth of non-bank loans. These serve as a kind of communicating vessels with “envelope” salaries, because, unlike official borrowers, people on the dark side of the tax system can return what they borrowed in cash. And despite the extortionate interest rates, the share of such is not diminishing: if in the first half of 2021, when the coronavirus was rampant in the republic, people turned to various credit firms for money in the amount of 261.29 million euros, then in the first half of 2023, debts to non-bank offices amounted to already 358.58 million.
The above figures refer to new loans only. In total, 20 legal entities have licenses for this kind of financial transactions in Latvia.
The habit of living in debt is contagious – a total loan amounting to more than 1.5 billion euros has been issued within Latvia, which is 1.2 million people. Of course, the last number does not mean that almost the entire adult population of the Republic of Lithuania is indebted to a parallel usury system – people are simply constantly refinancing, repaying previous loans from “envelope” salaries. There are more than 472 million euros hanging on them, and 974 million in banks. Residents of the country owe 82 million euros to telecommunications operators for phones and the Internet.
The head of the subcommittee, Arturs Butans (National Association), emphasized that “the numbers are large,” and before turning to labor from “third countries” (not the EU), it would be necessary to attract our own resources. The head of the administration of the Maintenance Guarantee Fund, Edgars Licitis, said that he acts using the carrot and stick method – on the one hand, he attracts the State Police, on the other, with the help of an interest amnesty, he stimulates the payment of the main part of the debt.
“We introduced an exchange with the Credit Information Bureau so that the debt burden does not increase,” noted E. Licitis. But the problem is that two-thirds of alimony workers also have other writs of execution – from car leasing to unpaid fines.
NUMBERS
Article 594 of the Civil Procedure Law reserves 50% of the minimum wage for the alimony worker – i.e. 350 euros. As for payments, 15%, or 105 euros, is deducted from the minimum wage for each child.
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2024-04-05 11:05:45