iSupport

Welcome to the iSupport Section

Introduction

iSupport, co-ordinated by the Permanent Bureau of the HCCH, was born out of the ambition to develop an electronic case management and secure communication system for the cross-border recovery of maintenance obligations under the EU 2009 Maintenance Regulation and the 2007 HCCH Child Support Convention. An initial project, supported by a significant European Union action grant, nine HCCH Member States and three organisations, resulted in the delivery of the iSupport software. Portugal has been using it in a pilot capacity since the autumn of 2016 and extension to other States is ongoing.

iSupport uses the e-CODEX electronic communication technology, in line with the requirements of the eIDAS Regulation. Both e-CODEX and iSupport are released under the EUPL licence, allowing States to realise considerable savings and to provide their citizens with effective access to justice.

From 2016 to 2018, a second EU-funded project, iSupport 2.0, focused on consolidating the software with new functionalities and supporting the efforts of further countries to join. 

A third EU-funded project, iSupport PM, lasted from 2018 to 2020. It focused on the implementation of data encryption in the application.

In September 2020, a new EU-funded project, iSupport ISD, started with the support of Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland. The project will work on the provision of statistics and enhancements to the design of the application, as well as on circulating information on the 2007 Convention for caseworkers and applicants.

iSupport is available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

In November 2019, iSupport was nominated for an award (top three out of 81 candidates) at the 2019 European Public Sector Award in the European and National administrative category.

Please note that iSupport is a tool for Central Authorities that cannot be used by individuals or the legal professions. If you are seeking to recover child support abroad, please contact national authorities.

To download iSupport, please contact the iSupport team at the Permanent Bureau. 

iSupport related news:

Training Videos

Key documents:

iSupport Specifications and guides:

[iSupport Archive] 

The content of this page represents the views of the Permanent Bureau of the HCCH only and is its sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.