Child support for children aged 21 and over: what exactly does it mean?
By means of Martine Gunter
Parents are legally obliged to provide for the costs of care and upbringing of their minor children. Even after children have reached the age of 18, parents are obliged to contribute to their costs of education and maintenance. From that moment on, the child has a right to payment of maintenance from his/her parent(s).
This obligation to contribute to the study costs exists, regardless of whether a child can earn money by working. A child who can earn money by working, but who chooses to study, must be financially enabled to do so by his parents. Of course, on condition that the parents are also financially able to do so. This obligation to pay a study contribution exists for children aged 18 to 21, so-called young adults.
This changes when a child turns 21. From that moment on, a child can only claim a contribution from his parents under the law if he is “needy”, in other words, if he is unable to earn money himself.
The mere fact that a child studies after turning 21 does not make the child needy. Parents are therefore no longer obliged to financially enable children to study after they turn 21 (cf. HR 9 September 1983, NJ 1984/535).
Under certain circumstances, a student aged 21 or older may still be entitled to a contribution towards his or her study costs on the basis of a so-called natural obligation to his or her parents.
For example, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled that a natural obligation may exist for parents to financially support a 21-year-old child in bearing the costs of a study that has already begun (Amsterdam Court of Appeal, 6 September 2011, ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2011:BU4638). Because the daughter was now 21 years old, there was no longer a legal obligation for the parents to contribute. Because the daughter had apparently started her study with the permission of her parents, she had not yet completed her study but would complete it the following school year, the court was of the opinion that under those circumstances there was a natural obligation for the parents to financially enable the daughter to complete her study. A natural obligation is an obligation that cannot be enforced through the courts (Article 6:3 BW). This is of course somewhat strange because an obligation precisely entails an obligation, while a natural obligation precisely not enforceable. If the parents were to continue to pay the study contribution without there being a natural obligation, the parents could subsequently reclaim the contribution from the daughter on the grounds of 'undue payment'.
In addition, it is possible that there is a contractual obligation for parents to contribute to the costs of living and study, even after their child has turned 21. An example of this is an agreement that parents have made in a divorce agreement.