Child Maintenance

There is no fixed tariff and no percentage. The starting point is that supporting a child is an obligation both parents incur jointly, and that each parent's share is apportioned according to their respective means. The court then asks what the child reasonably requires for proper living and upbringing - food, clothing, accommodation, medical care and education - and fixes an amount that is fair in all the circumstances.

In practice that means both parents' incomes and expenses go on the table at the enquiry, alongside the child's actual costs. Whether the child was born in or out of wedlock makes no difference, and children of a first marriage take no priority over children of a later one.

More than most people think. Once a payment is ten days overdue you may apply to the maintenance court, on a copy of the order and a sworn statement of the arrears, for any of three civil remedies: a warrant of execution against their property, an attachment of their salary or wages so the employer pays the amount over directly, or an attachment of money owed to them by someone else. A pension or annuity is not beyond reach - the Act says so expressly.

The court also furnishes the defaulter's particulars to the credit bureaus once such an application is granted.

Beyond that, failing to pay in accordance with a maintenance order is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine or imprisonment of up to three years. Pleading poverty does not end the matter: the Act says a person is not entitled to an acquittal on lack of means alone where the failure is due to unwillingness to work or misconduct. Arrears can also be recovered in the criminal process.

Yes, in either direction. A maintenance order is not cast in stone: where good cause exists, a complaint may be lodged for the substitution or discharge of the existing order, and the court may replace it with a new order or discharge it altogether. Circumstances change - retrenchment, a new job, a child's changing needs - and the order can follow them.

Until it is substituted or discharged, though, the existing order stands and must be paid. Simply paying less because your circumstances have worsened builds up arrears and exposes you to the enforcement steps above. If you cannot pay what the order says, move to have it varied - do not just stop.

The duty of support does not fall away because a parent is out of work. The enquiry looks at each parent's actual means and ability, and maintenance investigators can be used to establish what a parent who pleads poverty in fact earns, owns or spends. A parent who could work but chooses not to gets little sympathy - the Act itself refuses the lack-of-means defence to a criminal charge where the failure to pay is due to unwillingness to work.

Where a parent genuinely has nothing, the common law duty of support can reach further - in appropriate cases to the child's grandparents. Whether that is worth pursuing depends on the family's circumstances, and it is the kind of question the first consultation is for.

You do not have to issue anything yourself. The process starts with a complaint lodged at the maintenance court - which sits at the magistrate's court - and from there the maintenance officer investigates and institutes the enquiry. You will need to attend the enquiry itself, since the court decides on what is put before it, but you are not left to run litigation on your own.

Where the other side is represented, where the figures are disputed, or where enforcement has become necessary, having your own attorney in the room changes how the matter runs. We appear regularly in the maintenance courts and will tell you honestly whether your matter needs us or not.

It is honestly difficult to say - it depends on the matter and on the court. An unopposed enquiry with straightforward figures moves quickly; a disputed one, or one where the other parent's means must first be investigated, takes longer. What we can promise is that we do not let a file lie: papers go in promptly and we press for the earliest dates the roll allows.

We would prefer it. A great deal is lost over email, and these are matters where sitting across a desk from one another makes a real difference. Where the distance genuinely makes that impractical, we consult by video call instead.

No. We advise in consultation. A message is the right way to arrange an appointment, but not the right way to receive advice on something this consequential.

Payslips or proof of income for both parents if you have it, school and medical costs, and any existing order or agreement. If you have nothing, come anyway - it is better to start the conversation than to wait until the file is tidy.

Telephone 087 133 3595, or send the short form on this site. We will contact you to arrange a date and time.