Court Orders ANSES to Deposit Universal Child Allowance Directly to a Teenager's Account

On November 22, 2022, the Federal Trial Court No. 7 granted a precautionary measure requesting the National Social Security Administration (ANSES) to modify the ownership of the right to Universal Child Allowance (AUH) in favor of a 17-year-old girl.

The AUH seeks to guarantee the basic rights of children and adolescents, such as the right to food, health, education, adequate housing, and an adequate standard of living. Thus, the Family Allowances Regime establishes that the AUH will be paid to "only one of the parents, guardian, curator, or blood relative up to the third degree for each child and/or adolescent under the age of eighteen (18) years old under their care (...)".

In this case, it was possible to prove the non-existence of the bond between the plaintiff -a beneficiary of the AUH- and her mother -who received the AUH-, and the mother’s violation of the daughter’s basic rights (as mentioned above). This completely contradicts the purpose of the AUH.

It is important to highlight as well that the framework of laws related to children -i.e., the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Law No. 26061 on the Integral Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, the Argentine Civil and Commercial Code, and the Decree No. 840/20- set forth specific principles that serve as foundations to this matter. Some of these include:

• the overriding interest of children and adolescents, understood as the maximum, comprehensive, and simultaneous satisfaction of their rights,
• their status as subjects of the law,
• their right to be heard and to have their opinions taken into account,
• their age, degree of maturity, capacity for discernment, and other personal conditions.

The judge -based on the abovementioned principles, but especially on the overriding interest of the adolescent girl, and her capacity and progressive autonomy- ruled in favor of a change in the ownership of the AUH.