SINGAPORE: A Bill to improve enforcement of maintenance payments – which can be ordered for wives, children, incapacitated husbands and parents – was tabled in Parliament on Thursday (Apr 20).
The Family Justice Reform Bill introduces several amendments to make family proceedings simpler and more efficient, and facilitate more sustainable maintenance outcomes, the Ministry of Law (MINLAW) and Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) said in a joint press release.
If passed, the omnibus Bill will amend legislation including the Family Justice Act, the Women’s Charter and the Guardianship of Infants Act to strengthen elements of “therapeutic justice” in the family justice system.
This will help families in distress to “heal and move on with their lives”, and increase access to justice, especially for people who cannot afford legal representation, said MINLAW and MSF.
NEW MAINTENANCE ENFORCEMENT PROCESS
The proposed Bill will establish a new Maintenance Enforcement Process, which kicks in when applicants apply to enforce a maintenance order in the event of non-payment.
This will apply to maintenance orders under the Women’s Charter, Guardianship of Infants Act, Administration of Muslim Law Act, Maintenance Order (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act and Maintenance of Parents Act.
Breaches of maintenance orders continue to be “of concern”, said MINLAW and MSF. There was on average about 2,700 applications for enforcement each year from 2017 to 2019, according to data from the Family Justice Courts. This dropped by about 35 per cent from 2020 to 2022.
Currently, information on parties’ assets and means is not readily available or disclosed in the enforcement process.
“Without such information, it is difficult to distinguish between respondents who cannot pay maintenance and those who refuse to pay,” said MINLAW and MSF.
If a respondent is genuinely unable to pay, the applicant’s repeated enforcement attempts would be futile, they added.
The current enforcement process can also be time-consuming and resource-intensive for parties, especially those without the means to engage a lawyer.
Under the new process, “those who refuse to pay maintenance will be dealt with more decisively, while those who cannot pay will be channelled to appropriate assistance, and more sustainable maintenance arrangements can be considered”, said the ministries.
This conciliation process will be carried out by a new unit of Maintenance Enforcement Officers (MEOs) located within the law ministry. Compared to the current mediation process, MEOs will more actively seek information and recommend practical solutions to parties.
They will be empowered to obtain information about parties’ assets and means directly from stipulated entities, and provide this to the court, said the ministries.
These entities include government agencies – the Central Provident Fund Board, Housing and Development Board, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), Singapore Land Authority and Land Transport Authority – as well as banks and The Central Depository.
Tax information from IRAS and information from the banks may only be obtained with a court order.
Needy parties can be referred for financial assistance and other forms of support more quickly. The changes are also meant to reduce the amount of time applicants spend in enforcement proceedings, and the number of trips they have to make to court.
With a more accurate picture of the financial abilities of the respondents, MEOs will be able to put forward a proposal to parties to seek their agreement on the maintenance payments, said Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling.
“We hope that this will be a more sustainable outcome for the parties,” she told reporters.