IT’S ABOUT THE KIDS
When it comes to child support, the law is on your side. Here’s what you need to know about child maintenance
HAVING kids is one of life’s great responsibilities yet all too often parents, especially dads, dodge their duties when they split from their partners – forcing moms to turn to the courts for help. Here’s all you need to know about getting child maintenance from fathers who refuse to pay. MAINTENANCE IN A NUTSHELL By law all parents – biological parents, adoptive parents, legal guardians as well as grandparents – must take care of their kids’ or grandchildren’s needs, including shelter, clothing, medical care, schooling and food.
This law applies to parents whether they’re married, unmarried, living together, divorced or separated.
If the parents of a child are no longer together, the one looking after the child can apply to the maintenance court at their local magistrate’s court for the other parent to pay support to help provide for the child. Can grandparents or siblings be ordered to pay if the father can’t? Yes – the maintenance law stipulates they’re liable if neither parent can support the child. The parent who looks
BY DENNIS CAVERNELIS after the child can make a claim against the grandparents or siblings to step up. If they can’t pay they’ll need to prove to the court they don’t have sufficient funds. Do you have to pay to apply for maintenance? No, and you don’t need a lawyer either. Forms are available free of charge at any magistrate’s court around the country or online at justice.gov.za.
You’ll need to complete the forms and go to the court to apply for a hearing. In addition to filling in the forms you’ll need to bring your identity document, the child’s birth certificate, both parents’ bank statements, proof of your monthly income and expenses such as receipts for groceries, electricity bills, rent/bond repayments and other expenses related to your child.
The court will give a date for you and the other parent to appear in court. Can the maintenance order be changed? Yes, as people’s circumstances change either side can ask the court to amend the order to increase or decrease the amounts. How much will the father have to pay? There’s no set amount or percentage that the parent has to pay for his child’s care.
The amount the court decides on will depend on the family’s standard of living, their income and the cost of living. This amount will vary in each case.
If, for example, the father’s monthly gross income is R10 000 and the mother’s is the same, their total monthly gross income would be R20 000.
If the child’s needs come to R7 000 a month – the child’s share of the bond/ rent, cost of food, education, clothing and so on – the maintenance payment could be R3 500. How long must maintenance be paid? Until a child is capable of looking after her- or himself. When kids are 18 they’ll have to prove to the court how much maintenance they might still need. What happens if the father says he can’t afford to pay? He can apply to the courts for the amount to be reduced, but a financial investigation will be ordered to see if he’s being truthful. What happens if he can afford to pay but doesn’t? Then he’s in violation of the law and he can be fined or jailed for up to a year – or both.
The maintenance court can also have the parent blacklisted, which means he won’t be able to apply for credit.