Pro Bono: Maintenance

This library guide collates relevant resources relating to maintenance of children, aged parents and spouses from various government sites and online sources.

Overview

Maintenance is a form of financial support. The Women's Charter 1961 (2020 Rev Ed) provides the legal basis for maintenance of children and (former) spouses under Part 8. The laws of maintenance of wife and child (but not of incapacitated husbands) applies to all persons in Singapore, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.

The Maintenance of Parents Act 1995 (2020 Rev Ed) provides the legal basis for the maintenance of aged dependent parents, and also applies to all persons in Singapore. It establishes the Tribunal for the Maintenance of Parents as a statutory judicial organ, and is administered by the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

• Child Maintenance: Laws on the liability of parents and selected non-parents to maintain a dependent child.
• Spousal Maintenance: Liability of the husband to maintain his wife and wife to maintain her incapacitated husband during subsistence of marriage, and of former spouses after termination of their marriage.
• Parental Maintenance: Liability of an able grown child to maintain their aged parent.

The duty to maintain the child may be found under s 68 of the Women's Charter, while that of the spouse during marriage under s 69 and of former spouses under s 113(1).

S 3 of the Maintenance of Parents Act defines the parent who may make an application for maintenance.

Enforcement of these maintenance orders are dealt with primarily under Part 9 of the Women's Charter. Variation of a maintenance order made ancillary to an application for a judgment of divorce is provided for under s 118.

(Source: Leong Wai Kum, Elements of Family Law, 3rd Ed (2018))