When parents separate, one thing always remains: the children must be cared for and raised, and that costs money. Both parents must contribute. After a divorce, an obligation to contribute financially may also exist between ex-spouses. In this article we explain in plain language how child support and spousal maintenance (partner alimony) work in Aruba: what the law says, how the court calculates, which amounts are commonly used, and what you can do yourself to prepare well for court proceedings.
We rely exclusively on the Civil Code of Aruba (BWA) and on published decisions of the Court of First Instance of Aruba (Gerecht in eerste aanleg) and the Joint Court of Justice. You will find the sources at the end of this article.
Child support is the contribution a parent pays toward the costs of caring for and raising his or her child. This obligation does not depend on whether the parents were married. Parents who were never married, or who only had a short relationship, are both obliged to support their child.
Spousal maintenance (partner alimony) is a contribution toward the living expenses of the ex-partner personally. In Aruba, this in principle exists only after a marriage (or registered partnership). Different, stricter rules apply to people who lived together without being married. You can read more about that in chapter 7.
The court deals with both kinds of maintenance separately, but they are connected: child support always comes before spousal maintenance. The children are provided for first; only then does the court look at whether there is still room for a contribution to the ex-partner.
Article 1:404 of the Civil Code of Aruba (BWA) is clear: parents provide, according to their ability to pay (draagkracht), for the costs of caring for and raising their minor children. This applies to the father and the mother. The parent with whom the child lives contributes in kind (the child lives in the home, eats with the family, is looked after) and pays part of the costs out of his or her own pocket. The other parent pays his or her share in money: that is the child support.
The obligation also applies to the man who fathered the child but has not legally acknowledged it (Article 1:394 BWA), and, for as long as the marriage lasts, to a stepparent with respect to the children of his or her spouse who are part of the family (Article 1:395 BWA).
For minor children (under 18), the maintenance obligation always exists, regardless of whether the child earns anything. But the obligation does not stop at 18. Under Article 1:395a BWA, parents must also provide for the living and study costs of their children until age 21. If the child is enrolled in a course of study that cannot be completed before age 21, the obligation continues until the studies can reasonably be completed, but no later than age 25.
Child support set by the court automatically continues after the child's 18th birthday as a contribution to living and study costs (Article 1:395b BWA). No new proceedings need to be started.
Parents may make their own agreements about the amount of child support. Such an agreement can also be made at the hearing and recorded by the court in its court order (beschikking), as the Joint Court did in a 2024 case in which the father agreed at the hearing to Afl. 450 per month. What is not possible is for a parent to waive child support entirely: agreements that waive the maintenance owed by law are void (Article 1:400, paragraph 2, BWA).
The law provides two yardsticks: the need of the child and the ability to pay of the parents (Article 1:397 BWA). The Aruban court works this out in three steps. Unlike in the Netherlands, no extensive tables or calculation programs are used in Aruba. The judges work with a number of fixed guideline amounts ('standard amounts') that appear in almost every court order. In June 2026 the Joint Court confirmed once again that it is not bound by these guidelines of the Courts of First Instance, but does use them as a guide, especially when both parties rely on them.
The Court of First Instance starts from an average amount for the costs of caring for and raising a child, per child per month. The published decisions show the following picture:
These standard amounts already include the ordinary costs: school costs, clothing, school uniforms and recreation. You therefore do not need to list those separately; the court will not count them a second time.
The standard amount is, however, increased by special, necessary expenses that are not included in it. The case law shows that the court takes into account, for example, the costs of childcare or daycare (Afl. 450 per child in a 2025 case), after-school care, necessary transportation (Afl. 125 to Afl. 150 per child), sports and swimming lessons, and medically necessary costs that are not reimbursed by insurance. The condition is always that you show the necessity and the amount of those costs with supporting documents. Costs that are not substantiated, or that are already reimbursed by AZV (the general health insurance) or an employer's insurance, do not count.
Next, the court calculates for each parent separately how much they have left each month to contribute to the costs of the child. This works as follows.
Net income. The starting point is the average net monthly salary, as shown on the pay slips. Vacation pay, thirteenth month, bonuses, overtime and gratuities are included and converted to a monthly amount. For a self-employed parent or business owner, the court looks at the annual accounts and tax returns, and also at private withdrawals from the business. Rental income counts as well.
Fixed allowance for the parent's own living expenses: Afl. 1,400. Each parent may deduct a fixed amount of Afl. 1,400 per month for his or her own living expenses. According to the court, this amount already covers the reasonable costs of electricity, water, telephone, internet and cable, use of a car, and personal care. Those costs are therefore not deducted again separately, even if you actually incur them.
Necessary fixed expenses that take priority. In addition, the court takes into account fixed expenses that reasonably take priority over child support. In practice these are mainly the (basic) rent or mortgage and demonstrably necessary loans. Support paid for a child from another relationship is also taken into account (in 2025 the Joint Court allowed Afl. 450 for this).
What does not count. The court is strict about expenses that a parent has chosen to take on. A few examples from the case law: a loan for an expensive SUV was only counted for half, because a smaller car would have been sufficient; credit card debts, overdrafts, an unpaid bill for a computer or telephone, courses and training, and a loan without supporting documents were disregarded. The rule is: a personal choice may not take priority over the obligation to support the children.
What remains of the net income after deducting the fixed allowance and the necessary expenses is that parent's ability to pay.
The costs of the child are divided between both parents in proportion to their ability to pay (Article 1:397, paragraph 2, BWA). If one parent earns much more than the other, that parent also pays a larger share. The contribution of the non-custodial parent can never be higher than his or her ability to pay, nor higher than the need of the child.
| Worked example (based on Joint Court of Justice, February 4, 2025, ECLI:NL:OGHACMB:2025:30) | Per month |
|---|---|
| Need of child 1: standard amount Afl. 450 + daycare Afl. 450 | Afl. 900 |
| Need of child 2: standard amount Afl. 450 + daycare Afl. 450 | Afl. 900 |
| Total need of the children | Afl. 1,800 |
| Mother: net income Afl. 3,205 – fixed allowance Afl. 1,400 – basic rent Afl. 900 | Afl. 905 (rounded to 900) |
| Father: net income Afl. 5,656 – fixed allowance Afl. 1,400 – necessary loans Afl. 1,707 – support for another child Afl. 450 | Afl. 2,100 (rounded) |
| Combined ability to pay | Afl. 3,000 |
| Father's share: 2,100 / 3,000 × 1,800 | Afl. 1,260 |
| Child support payable by the father per child (1,260 / 2) | Afl. 630 |
| Mother's share: 900 / 3,000 × 1,800 (stays within her own household) | Afl. 540 |
In this example the mother had asked for Afl. 825 per child, and the Court of First Instance had granted that. After a precise calculation of both parents' ability to pay, the Joint Court arrived at Afl. 630 per child. It shows that properly documenting income and expenses makes the difference.
Child allowance (kindertoelage). If the custodial parent receives the child allowance that is withheld from the other parent's salary, the support is reduced by that amount. The court includes this in the court order.
The obligation to support children carries great weight. The court looks not only at what a parent currently earns, but also at what he or she could reasonably earn. A few lines from the case law:
Through the Guardianship Council (Voogdijraad). In Aruba, the law provides that child support set by the court is paid, for the benefit of the child, to the Guardianship Council (Voogdijraad) (Article 1:408 BWA), which passes the amount on to the custodial parent. In practice, the court sometimes also orders direct payment into the custodial parent's bank account. The Guardianship Council can also itself ask the court to set or change child support (Articles 1:406 and 1:407 BWA).
Start date. The court decides from which day the support is owed (Article 1:402 BWA). Often this is the first day of the month after the decision, but the court can also set an earlier start date, for example the date on which the petition was filed: from that moment on, the other parent could after all have taken it into account. Support can never be claimed for a period that was already more than five years in the past when the petition was filed (Article 1:403 BWA).
Immediately enforceable. Maintenance orders are almost always declared 'provisionally enforceable'. This means that payment must start immediately, even if one of the parties appeals.
Indexation. Article 1:402a BWA allows the Minister of Justice to adjust maintenance amounts annually in line with consumer price developments. The percentage is published in the Landscourant (the official gazette). If in doubt, check whether and which percentage applies to your situation.
A maintenance order or agreement is not forever. Under Article 1:401 BWA, the court can change or withdraw the amount if, due to a change of circumstances, it no longer meets the legal standards, or if the earlier decision was based on incorrect or incomplete information.
Examples of changed circumstances are: the child turns 12 and goes to secondary school (the need rises from one standard amount to the next), a parent loses his job through no fault of his own or, on the contrary, starts earning much more, a new child is born for whom the parent must also pay, or housing costs change drastically. Please note: the change must be genuinely significant. Small fluctuations in income are no reason for a change, and the court will redo the entire calculation, which may also work out to your disadvantage.
Article 1:157 BWA provides that the court, at the time of the divorce or later, may award the spouse who does not have sufficient income to live on, and who cannot reasonably acquire it, an allowance for living expenses to be paid by the other spouse. Spousal maintenance starts as soon as the divorce has been registered in the civil registry. For the period before that, the court can set a provisional contribution.
The Court of First Instance and the Joint Court assess three questions, in this order:
The spousal maintenance is the lower of the additional need and the ability to pay. In a 2024 case, the Court of First Instance set the wife's need at Afl. 2,100, deducted her own income from a small business (Afl. 880), and awarded Afl. 1,220 per month because the husband could easily afford that.
In Aruba, a maximum duration of 12 years applies, counted from the registration of the divorce (Article 1:157, paragraph 4, BWA). If the marriage lasted no longer than five years and no children were born from it, the maintenance lasts at most as long as the marriage lasted (paragraph 6). The court can set a shorter term or conditions (paragraph 3), and regularly does so. The Dutch rule that spousal maintenance in principle lasts a maximum of five years does not apply in Aruba; the Joint Court expressly confirmed this in 2023.
The obligation ends earlier if the receiving ex-partner remarries, enters into a registered partnership, or starts living with someone else as if they were married (Article 1:160 BWA).
Spouses may agree among themselves, before or after the divorce, whether, and up to what amount, one will pay spousal maintenance to the other (Article 1:158 BWA). They can agree in writing that this arrangement cannot be changed by the court in the event of a change of circumstances (Article 1:159 BWA); such a 'non-modification clause' only fails to hold in the case of very drastic changes.
Someone who has never been married can in principle not claim spousal maintenance. In 2021 the Court of First Instance rejected the petition of a woman who had lived with her partner for years without being married, because the statutory maintenance obligation between spouses does not apply to cohabiting partners and there was no cohabitation agreement either.
Since September 1, 2021, however, the Civil Code of Aruba contains a new provision: Article 1:408b BWA. If two persons have lived together for a long time as if they were married, and that cohabitation has ended other than by death, the court may, if reasonable, award one of them an allowance for living expenses to be paid by the other. The rules for spousal maintenance after divorce then apply in the same way. This is therefore not an automatic right: the court assesses whether it is reasonable in the specific case. No decisions on the application of this article have been published yet, so it is not yet clear exactly how the court will interpret 'a long time' and 'reasonable'.
Maintenance is requested by filing a petition with the Court of First Instance of Aruba. You can do this yourself ('in person') or through a lawyer. The court fee is Afl. 50. Those who have a certificate of insufficient means can apply for leave to litigate free of charge. In divorce proceedings, child support and spousal maintenance can be included as ancillary requests.
The court can only calculate properly if it has the right documents. According to the checklist of the Court of First Instance and the Rules of Procedure, at least the following must be submitted:
After filing, a hearing follows at which both parties are heard. The Guardianship Council is often present. The court then gives its decision in writing in a court order. An appeal against that order can be lodged with the Joint Court of Justice; the appeal period is short (as a rule six weeks), so do not delay. Because these are family matters, the costs of the proceedings are usually 'compensated': each party bears its own costs.
Child support in Aruba is not a complicated calculation, but it is one that must be done precisely: standard amount plus special costs on the child's side, net income minus the fixed allowance and necessary expenses on the parents' side, and a fair division according to ability to pay. For spousal maintenance, the questions of need, neediness and duration are added. In both cases: good preparation and complete, honest financial information determine the outcome.
Do you have questions about your own situation, would you like to have a calculation made, or have you received a petition or court order? Glas & Glas Attorneys and Legal Consultancy is happy to assist you, in Dutch, Papiamento, English or Spanish.
This article is intended for general information only and is based on the Civil Code of Aruba (text in force as of September 1, 2021) and on decisions published on rechtspraak.nl up to and including June 2026. The standard amounts mentioned are guideline amounts that the court may adjust in individual cases. No rights can be derived from this article. For advice on your personal situation, please contact us.
There is no fixed amount. The court starts from a guideline need of about Afl. 450 per month for younger children and Afl. 650 to 750 for older children, adds necessary extra costs such as daycare, and then divides that amount between both parents in proportion to what each can pay after a living allowance of Afl. 1,400 and necessary fixed costs.
For minors always; after the 18th birthday the obligation continues for living expenses and studies until 21, and if a study cannot be completed by then, until it reasonably can be, but no later than 25 (Articles 1:395a and 1:395b of the Civil Code of Aruba).
At most 12 years from registration of the divorce. If the marriage lasted no more than five years and produced no children, no longer than the marriage itself. The court may set a shorter term, and the obligation ends if the recipient remarries or lives together with a new partner as if married.
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