16. The monthly payment of an allowance is prescribed by five years from the last day of the month during which it must be effected.
However, where the payment of an allowance is authorized after the end of the month for which the first payment for the allowance is payable, the above delay runs, for unpaid payments, from the date of the decision authorizing the payment of the allowance or of the judgment ordering it.
The five years’ delay provided in the first paragraph runs from 1 January 1977 in respect of allowances payable before such date.