Given the presence of COVID-19, it is important to guarantee the provision of basic food to children and adolescents, in a situation of poverty or extreme poverty, beneficiaries of alimony.
It is also essential to temporarily suspend the obligation to pay alimony that due to COVID-19, cannot fully or partially fulfill its alimony obligations.
In response to this, in Costa Rica, the following bill called “SALVATION LAW ON FOOD PENSIONS, BEFORE COVID-19” is submitted to the ladies and gentlemen for their consideration.
Article 1.-The purpose of this law is to guarantee the right to maintenance and provision of food for children and adolescents in situations of poverty or extreme poverty when the defendant parent cannot comply with the payment of alimony for reasons associated with the COVID-19 crisis.
Article 2. For such purposes, the CEN CINAI National Directorate is authorized to deliver a package of basic food basket supplies per month, to each child and adolescent in a situation of poverty or extreme poverty, whose legal representative shows that he has not received the alimony during the months of April, May and June 2020.
Article 3. Add a transitional II to the Alimony Law, Law No. 7654 and its reforms, which will read as follows:
Transitory II: Body arrest orders are suspended for non-compliance with the payment of alimony to debtors who have failed to pay in full or in part during the months of April, May and June 2020, for reasons associated with health loss, loss of employment, reduction of more than 50% of their income or total loss of income as an unequivocal consequence of the crisis generated by COVID-19. In order to enforce this suspension of the corporal constraint, you must submit to the Judicial Office where the file is processed an incident of suspension of the corporal constraint, in which you justify the reason for the breach. However, the food debt will be maintained, along with a proposed payment arrangement in the months of July to December 2020.
The Judicial Office must urgently process and immediately notify the plaintiff and, in cases in which it knows that there are conditions of poverty or extreme poverty, refer the case to the National Directorate of CEN CINAI to include the beneficiary child or adolescent of the pension, in the basic food basket grocery package delivery program.
At Erp Lawyers we will provide you with all the necessary information to apply this Law, contact us and we will advise you.
