The question of who owns the funds received under the child-rearing benefit (800+) may be of considerable significance.
Parents or children?
The first question to consider is whether the funds obtained under the child-rearing benefit belong to the children. The answer must, however, be in the negative – it is accepted that the purpose of this benefit (and of the Act on State Assistance in Child-Rearing as a whole) is precisely to support the parents. It is therefore clear that the funds paid out under the scheme belong to the parents, not to the children.
Personal or joint matrimonial property?
Having established that the 800+ funds do not belong to the children, we must turn to the second question – whether they form part of the parents’ joint matrimonial property (assuming, of course, that they are married and have not adopted a regime of separation of property), or whether they form part of the personal property of one of them. Here too the answer is unsurprising: these funds are not an exception to the general rule and, as a matter of principle, they fall into the joint matrimonial property, provided that such property exists.
What if there is no joint matrimonial property?
In such circumstances, the funds form part of the personal property of whichever parent is named as the recipient in the decision granting the benefit. That parent not only receives the funds by bank transfer but is also their sole owner. They should apply the funds in accordance with their intended purpose (meeting the costs of raising the child); however, they are under no obligation to account for their use – neither to the other parent nor to the State.
An alternative arrangement
The Act provides for one further option: where care of the child is exercised under a shared-residence arrangement (piecza naprzemienna), the parents may jointly apply for the benefit to be paid to each of them in equal shares.