Non-payment of child support has been penalized since Poland regained its independence, despite doubts sometimes raised. The changes in this respect in the subsequent penal codes of 1932, 1969 and 1997 were in fact not very significant. Changes in the Penal Code concerned the problem of persistence, the inability to meet the basic needs of life, the basis for fixing the maintenance obligation. Amendment of the existing Article 209 of the Penal Code, which lays down the liability for evasion of the maintenance obligation, must be regarded as unsuccessful.