Child support money withheld by the State

Family Court has said that they are receiving complaints that Ministry of Finance and Treasury is withholding child support money.

Hassan Shafeeu, Registrar at the Family Court told Sun today that Ministry of Finance had stated that the Public Finance Regulation requires the child support money collected by the Family Court to be deposited to the state revenue account.

“We have been receiving repeated complaints from the people who paid the money to the Family Court and the people who need to receive the money, that the money have not been recieved. Finance Ministry has said that the Public Finance Act states that the child support money, once paid to the Family Court, has to be deposited in the state revenue account. The money will then be granted to this court [by the Finance Ministry], which will in turn distribute [to the parents]. I do not believe that the money has to go into the state revenue account by any means,” Shafeeu said.

Shafeeu said that discussion regarding the matter, held with the Finance Ministry three weeks ago, yielded no result. He said that the Family Court is greatly concerned about the parents that have been forced to carry on without child support.

Minister of Finance and Treasure Abdulla Jihad refuted the claims by the Family Court. He said that his Ministry has been providing the money.

Some of the parents have shared the concern with Sun. The parents said that child support money paid to the Family Court at the end of last month has still not been made available. The money paid at the end of the month is normally provided to the receiving party within the first 10 days of the following month, they said.

A father of a separated family is liable to pay MVR 1000 per month per child as child support. The recent amendment to Article 65 of the regulation of family’s state the father of a separated family with multiple children has to pay a minimum of MVR 1000 per child until the child is 18 and that the father of a separated family with a single child has to pay MVR 2000 until the child reaches 18 years of age.