Real progress on child maintenance defaulters
The DA is pleased about the real progress made in the effort to hold child maintenance defaulters accountable in law.
This is according to the DA shadow minister of Trade and Industry Geordin Hill-Lewis MP, at a press conference in Parliament, recently.
For the last six weeks the DA has been working closely with government agencies, departments and the credit bureau to find a way to increase the pressure on parents to fulfill their financial responsibilities to their children.
“In the last few days there have been several developments that we believe will make a significant difference,” says Hill-Lewis.
According to Hill-Lewis, this is an issue that every South African should be concerned about.
“The DA would like to see all parents voluntarily and mutually committing to take financial responsibility for their children after a break-up. This is much better for parent and child alike.
“However, there are still far too many parents who don’t think like that.”
He says that the number of children raised without both parents is staggering.
According to a report published by the South African Institute of Race Relations in 2011, an estimated nine-million children are growing up in South Africa in single parent households, the vast majority of those households are headed by mothers.
Almost half the children in South Africa (48 per cent) are raised with only one parent.
“Raising children as a single parent is difficult enough, but doing so without any financial support from the other parent has devastating consequences for the children, and for society.”
Research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Centre has shown that divorce is one of the main reasons that middle-class families’ fall back into poverty in developing countries.
Maintenance payments are a lifeline for single parent families struggling to make ends meet.
It helps parents to cover the basic necessities that all children need – food, clothes, school fees, after school care, medicine.
“That is why this issue is so important. If we can up the pressure on parents to honour their financial responsibilities to their children, we can improve the lifes of millions of South African children.”
The DA has the following progress to report:
On Friday, August 1, the National Credit Regulator gazetted new “affordability assessment” guidelines for the credit industry. Following the DA’s engagements with the Regulator over the last month, the draft regulations now provide that:
n Maintenance defaults will stay on a person’s credit record for five years, or until the court rescinds the default judgment, whichever occurs sooner. [Section 17(1)(8)];
n Maintenance payments will be included in all affordability assessments completed when applying for new loans. [23(A)(10)(c)]; and
n Clients are required to declare if they have any maintenance default judgments [Section 3.7 of the new prescribed form]
According to Hill-Lewis , this is significant.
“It means that maintenance defaulters will now have their credit records impaired, for the first time. This will stop defaulters accessing new credit while ignoring their maintenance responsibilities.
“We urge the public to participate by commenting on the amended legislation when it is published, and by supporting the gazetted regulations.
“This is a major victory for children in single parent households across South Africa. Child maintenance is a legally binding agreement to pay regularly and on time, and failure to do so should carry real consequences.
“The bipartisan progress that we have made in recent weeks means that the prospects of maintenance defaulters abdicating their responsibility are reduced.
“There is a lot of work still to be done. The Maintenance Courts are not functioning properly, and many parents and children do not get justice in the family courts.”
Hill-Lewis says that the DA will continue to work with everyone who is as passionate as we are about improving the life chances of South Africa’s children.
A copy of the new ‘affordability assessment’ guidelines for the credit industry can be found at https://bit.ly/1kvLddN. – @IschkeBoksburg
