Stop daddy’s money if your dream job takes too long to come

Child support is not for life. The Cassation says it, indeed it makes it clear, looking at a specific case. If the ideal job does not arrive, the son, now twenty-seven and a graduate, must reduce his ambitions and still look for a job, even if more modest than the one he dreamed of.

The ordinance is number 29779 of December 29, 2020 and arises from the appeal of a mother. The appellate courts, partially reviewing the divorce decree, they had exempted the ex-husband from paying the allowance for one of the two children because he was now an adult and a graduate. According to the woman it was not fair because the boy had not yet achieved economic independence.

The judges wronged her saying that only the youngest child was entitled to maintenance. In fact, it has not been shown that the oldest did not have any income, nor that he had “sought in all possible and reasonable ways suitable and adequate working solutions to his attitudes and aspirations “.

Already in previous ordinances and judgments it was clearly established that parents must not support children who do not make a clear commitment to find a job “on the basis of the real opportunities offered by the labor market, if necessary by downsizing their aspirations, without linger waiting for a job opportunity suited to your ambitions “. In 2016, the Supreme Court had said that assistance continued indefinitely would lead “Parasitism of former young people against their increasingly elderly parents”.

According to the judges, the alimony should not function as a tool welfare, but it must serve to empower children: once they finish their studies, young people must become economically independent from their parents and must not expect to be supported, despite precarious jobs and low salaries. Unemployment cannot be considered a pretext either, since it can affect anyone, even people who are later in life.