Four cases a day under new process to help people get maintenance payments owed to them

It is now easier for those owed maintenance, or financial support, by former spouses or other family members, to get the money under a process that started on Jan 16.

In the first three weeks since then, the Ministry of Law’s (MinLaw) Maintenance Enforcement Division received an average of four cases a day, its spokeswoman told The Straits Times.

Numbers are expected to grow in the coming weeks with greater public awareness of the new Maintenance Enforcement Process, she added.

This was implemented to address concerns about people who did not pay maintenance, or defaulters.

Officers in this new division can obtain the defaulter’s financial information from his or her banks and government agencies such as the Central Provident Fund Board, the Housing Board and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore.

This will help to distinguish between defaulters who genuinely cannot afford to pay maintenance and those who have the financial means but refuse to pay for various reasons, such as to get back at their former spouses, family lawyers said.

Previously, there were no powers for the courts or mediators to obtain the defaulter’s financial information directly from third parties such as banks and government agencies.

PKWA Law Practice senior associate director of family law and probate Dorothy Tan said: “Non-payment of maintenance, even when individuals can afford it, often stems from personal disputes, control or lingering resentment from the breakdown of the marriage.

“Some individuals may withhold maintenance to gain leverage in ongoing conflicts or to avoid taking responsibility, even though their financial situation allows them to meet these obligations.”

With accurate information about the defaulter’s financial circumstances at hand, the Family Justice Courts will be able to make more “targeted and effective” enforcement orders to recover maintenance arrears, the MinLaw spokeswoman said.

Previously, a person who was owed maintenance had to file a discovery application to get a better idea of the defaulter’s financial circumstances – for example, when he or she claimed to not have money to pay up.

A discovery application is an application to the courts to compel the other person to provide documents and information relating to his or her assets and expenditure.

However, the process of filing discovery applications can be costly and time-consuming, family lawyers said.

The new Maintenance Enforcement Process will be implemented in phases as the Maintenance Enforcement Division builds up capacity. The process kicked off with phase one on Jan 16.

To be eligible for phase one, a person must file a fresh application to enforce the maintenance order on or after Jan 16. The person must have also filed at least one previous application to enforce the same maintenance order, and that application must have concluded.

An example of a concluded application is when the court has issued the enforcement order, and the time for appealing against such orders in the previous application has expired.

A person can file an application to enforce the maintenance order after the other party fails to comply with the terms of that maintenance order, such as by not paying up.

MinLaw gave an example of a woman who applied in 2020 to enforce a maintenance order, which the court granted. She applied again on Jan 20, 2025, to enforce that same maintenance order, so the new process will apply to her.

The ministry spokeswoman said that the Maintenance Enforcement Process will be expanded in the future to include those who apply for the first time to enforce maintenance orders.

Under the first phase, the new process will apply to the enforcement of maintenance orders made under any of these four Acts: the Women’s Charter, the Administration of Muslim Law Act, the Maintenance of Parents Act and the Guardianship of Infants Act.

These laws cover maintenance for current and former spouses, children and elderly parents.

When asked how many people are expected to be eligible for phase one of the new process, the MinLaw spokeswoman said there were 1,745 maintenance enforcement applications in 2023 under the various Acts.

They were the Women’s Charter, the Administration of Muslim Law Act, Maintenance of Parents Act and the Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act.

The new Maintenance Enforcement Process comes as the non-compliance of maintenance orders remained fairly high even after various sanctions against defaulters were introduced over the years, said Law Minister K. Shanmugam in 2023, when the Family Justice Reform Bill was passed in Parliament.

For example, there were an average of 2,700 applications under the Women’s Charter to enforce maintenance orders each year between 2017 and 2019, and 15 per cent to 20 per cent were repeat applications made within the same year.

Mr Shanmugam said: “It is difficult to expect parties to move on when maintenance obligations are breached, especially if repeatedly. 

“Such breaches can also spur retaliatory action by the other side, and pull both parties further apart... With the Maintenance Enforcement Process, we hope to change a bit of this, and make the post-divorce journey a less fraught one.”

How the new Maintenance Enforcement Process works

Under the new process, both the applicant and the defaulter will need to attend a mandatory “conciliation session” with the maintenance enforcement officer.

During this session, the officer will recommend ways to come to a resolution and submit a report to the courts.

If the parties involved come to an agreement, the terms of the agreement will be recorded as a court order, which they have to follow.

If the parties cannot agree and the case proceeds to a trial, the courts may refer to the report submitted by the maintenance enforcement officer to make more targeted and effective enforcement orders to recover the maintenance arrears, said the MinLaw spokeswoman.

And if the case goes to trial, the courts will issue a Show Payment Order, which requires the defaulter to show proof of payment to the courts for a specified period of time.

The defaulter can be jailed if he or she fails to show proof of payment without providing any good reason for failing to do so.

The defaulter will also need to pay a fee of $180 for the services of the maintenance enforcement officers.

The MinLaw spokeswoman said it is only right that the person who defaulted on maintenance bear part of the costs incurred.

She added: “Otherwise, such costs that are necessitated by the respondent’s non-compliance will be borne completely by public funds.”

Ms Gloria James-Civetta, head lawyer of Gloria James-Civetta & Co, said the new process would discourage people from defaulting on their payments and make it easier for individuals to enforce maintenance orders.

She said: “This is crucial for those who do not have the time or resources to repeatedly chase after payments. This process enhances access to justice for applicants, especially those who are self-represented and cannot afford legal representation.” 

Under the old system, Ms James-Civetta said the courts had limited powers to inquire into the couple’s circumstances, and relied heavily on the information the parties gave to make various orders.

Mr Rajan Chettiar, managing director of Rajan Chettiar LLC, said even with the discovery application under the old system, some simply refused to give the information the court ordered them to provide.

Besides, the discovery process can be time-consuming and expensive, family lawyers said.

PKWA Law Practice’s Ms Tan said the fees charged by lawyers depend on factors such as the extent of the documents that are sought and the number of rounds in the discovery process.

But it is usual to fork out a few thousands in legal fees, which could even end up being five-figure sums if the process is extensive and depending on the choice of law firm, she said.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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