Families “I don’t agree to be just a weekend getaway,” says Matti from Espoo, whose economic shift to chaos

School- or the choice of place of day care, the organization of the school ride, the receipt of housing allowance and financial reasons affect where the child is registered after the divorce, ie with whom the child is reported to live.

This is evident from a recent survey by the Finnish Association of New Families (Supli), the preliminary results of which were presented on Tuesday at the event of the Parliamentary Support Group for Diverse Families.

Shifting after a divorce is becoming more common, but the service system does not recognize family structures, says Supli’s CEO Kirsi Heikinheimo.

“Parents would be more prepared for cooperative parenting, but family support services and benefits do not recognize shared parenting.”

One of the disadvantages, for example, is that a child cannot have two official addresses.

This, in turn, has a direct impact not only on access to various support services and service charges, but also on child benefits, such as housing and subsistence benefits, which are determined by enrollment.

Suplin at the turn of April – May, 205 parents of alternating children responded to the survey.

According to the respondents, the most common problem was related to access to information and the school transport of the alternating child. The right to a school ride is usually determined only by the home where the child is enrolled, even if the child actually lives alternately in two different homes.

For example, Raisio Hanna Mattilan The 12- and 15-year-old daughters live as much with their mother’s new family in Raisio as with their father in Mynämäki. They go to school in Mynämäki.

The school trip is less than 25 kilometers from Raisio. However, they do not receive any support from either municipality.

According to Mattila, there are about 200 euros a month to pay for school trips. It makes a big dent in Mattila’s finances working as a babysitter.

Child benefits come to Mattila by mutual agreement of the ex-spouses, but they are practically entirely spent on the daughters’ bus tickets.

When Mattila and her ex-spouse divorced, it was a joint decision that the daughters stayed with their father. This is how the girls’ school remained the same.

However, it meant that the father became the so-called close parent and Mattila the more distant parent. However, Mattila doesn’t like the term.

“I’m just as close a parent to my daughters,” she says.

Mattila’s ex-spouse has suggested that the children be transferred to the books to Mattila so that they have the opportunity to receive subsidized school transport to school, but in that case the children would have had to change schools from Mynämäki to Raisio.

“We didn’t want that, because they have all the friendships and a familiar school in Mynämäki,” says Mattila.

In Finland Less than 30 percent of the children of parents living separately live alternately with both parents, according to a study conducted by the Kela Research Unit in 2020.

According to the study, shifts are more common if the parents are highly educated or well-off.

Read more: One third of children from divorced families live in two homes alternately: most often high-income and high-income parents end up with children.

There were indications in the study that shifting could be possible for more children if it were taken into account in the support of both parents, says Kela’s specialist researcher Ella Sihvonen. In the study, housing benefits emerged as individual benefits.

“The parent could take care that the shift could become thinner or more complete as the child grew up, if the parent could not afford a large enough apartment,” says Sihvonen.

In addition to benefits, shifting also affected access to services. The distant parent is also often left without services for families with children, such as family counseling.

Espoo resident Matti is a three-week-old with his three children. For the privacy of the children, he does not want to appear in the story under his name. In addition, the new family includes two children of his current spouse and a child common to the couple.

About six years ago, Mati, a company working in the construction industry, went bankrupt because of tax debts. Because it was a business name, the debts fell due as personal receivables and he now repays them through foreclosure.

Although Mati lives with Mati every other week, this is not taken into account in the protection part of the foreclosure.

“The foreclosure doesn’t take into account the trio because they’re registered elsewhere,” Matti says.

With her ex-husband, Matti has been suing for alimony and housing for children. As the children are not registered with him, the Legal Aid Office has also not taken the children into account in the expenditure.

“I pay alimony, even though my income has been lower than my immediate parent,” says Matti.

He does not receive housing allowance because they go to a close parent based on their children’s enrollment.

“Financially, I wouldn’t be able to afford this weekly arrangement, but when I resigned, I have already made the decision that I will not agree to be just a weekend bitch,” Matti says.

Because the distance to the ex-spouse is not good, the children have had to acquire all the same hobby equipment in duplicate.

“I don’t want children to have to compromise on hobby opportunities because of the bad distances between our adults,” Matti says.

Financial worries are a constant source of stress, according to Mati. Being in the construction industry, it would be possible for him to do even more work, but any extra pay would go to bailout anyway and not improve the family’s livelihood.

She says there could be savings in housing costs if the family moved further away in search of a cheaper apartment, but she has wanted to live close to her children. In his opinion, the apartment must also be one in which all children can live.

“It has a big impact on how they feel about the apartment as their home,” Matti says.

He says he has received financial support from his family and others close to him.

“I’ve been really grateful for that. As soon as I get the debts of the foreclosure, I will start paying off those debts, ”says Matti.