NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sandra Verburgt, Petra Beishuizen and Ivo Janssens, Delissen Martens Advocaten
ognition and joint custody for unmarried and unregistered partners”) entered into force. As a result, both parents will be automatically vested with parental authority – whether or not they are married or in registered partnerships. Parents will have joint parental authority for children born on or after 1 January 2023, provided the father recognises the child as his. For a completely domestic matter, it is thus still relatively easy to check whether both parents have parental Child arrangements are a matter of public policy. This means that the Family Court always has the authority to vary an arrangement made by the parents if the court does not consider such arrangement to be in the best interests of the children. Child Support In the Netherlands, parents must financially sup - port their children until said children reach the age of 21. Child support is defined as a contri - bution to the costs of care and upbringing if the child is still a minor (ie, under the age of 18) and a contribution towards the costs of care and edu - cation if the child is a young adult (ie, between 18 and 21 years old). Study costs also include the costs that must be paid from an additional, interest-bearing loan granted to the student. Parents may agree contractually to a longer term (ie, to continue their financial support beyond the child’s 21st birthday) if they wish so. Needs of minors responsibility. Public policy Needs do not have to be demonstrated when children are minors. In order to determine the need for a contribution to the costs of a child’s care and upbringing, a system has been devel - oped based on the income and spending pat - terns of families in the Netherlands as collected
by Statistics Netherlands ( Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek , or CBS) in co-operation with the National Institute for Budget Information ( Natio- naal Instituut voor Budgetvoorlichting , or Nibud). According to CBS research, parents spend a certain percentage of the family income on their children. This study also shows that, as more children are added to the household, the total costs of the children increase – although the average costs per child will decrease. Dutch courts calculate the child’s needs according to the fixed amounts that can be found in the fam - ily net income tables provided by Nibud. In the Nibud table, the child allowance ( Kinderbijslag ) is not included in the figures. If there is additional health coverage for the children, the premium for this additional insurance shall be added to the figure. Needs of young adults/students The Nibud tables do not provide for the calcula - tion of the needs of young adults aged between 18 and 21. No standards have been developed in order to determine the needs of young adults – usually, students who are subject to the Stu - dent Finance Act 2000 ( Wet Studiefinanciering , or WSF). According to the WSF, the budget for a stu - dent consists of a standard amount for living expenses, which is increased by tuition fees or a contribution towards the cost of tuition. For needs assessment generally, the WSF standard can be applied, whereby the student can dem - onstrate that they require a higher budget for a certain item. It is possible to calculate the needs of non-studying young adults using the WSF cri - teria, minus the study costs included therein (for books and learning materials). Health insurance is considered to be included in the WSF norm.
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