Pay for kids, or else

Child maintenance defaulters face being blacklisted if proposed amendments to the National Credit Act come into effect.

The draft "affordability guidelines" adopted by the National Credit Regulator last week would block fathers in arrears with their maintenance payments from getting credit for up to five years.

According to the draft, published in the Government Gazette on Friday, outstanding maintenance payments could be used for credit-scoring and assessments.

The public has 30 days in which to comment on the amendments to the National Credit Regulator Bill before it is tabled in parliament by Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.

The amendments have been welcomed by government departments involved in children's rights and by the DA.

Mthunzi Mhaga, spokesman for the Justice Department, which manages the payments of child maintenance through the courts, said the new regulations would strengthen the government crackdown on maintenance defaulters.

Mhaga said prosecutors would be obliged to submit the names of maintenance defaulters to credit bureaux.

In terms of the draft regulations:

• Maintenance defaults will stay on the defaulter's credit record for up to five years, or until a court rescinds the default judgment;
• Maintenance payments will be included in all credit affordability assessments for new loans; and
• People applying for a loan will have to declare maintenance default judgments against them.

Rob Green, founder of the Family Law Clinics, said maintenance defaulting was common, especially in Western Cape and Gauteng.

"There are many facets to the problem but the bottom line is that neither men nor women are taking responsibility for their children.

"There will always be people who will walk away from their responsibilities - from their children and their financial responsibilities to them.

"If there was a bit more thought given to having a family there would be a lot fewer problems with maintenance."

He said the law clinic received three new default cases every day and was dealing with hundreds of maintenance cases.

"Traditionally, defaulters are men but this is because women are normally granted primary care of their children. However, we are noticing an increase in the number of women defaulting in maintenance payments."

Green said he doubted that the planned regulations would help and might make it even more difficult for defaulting parents to raise money with which to make good the payment defaults.

According to 2011 statistics compiled by the SA Institute of Race Relations, about 9million children grew up in single-parent homes.

The spokesman for Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini, Lumka Oliphant, said the draft regulations were not about catching fathers out but "about the responsibility of both parents in raising their children".

She said fathers who single-handedly looked after their children were also entitled to maintenance payments.

The DA, which has been lobbying for defaulters to be blacklisted, has welcomed the proposed regulations.

DA MP Denise Robinson claimed victory for her party, saying its interaction with the regulator was behind the proposed amendments to the law.

She said maintenance courts were hampered by enormous bottlenecks, lack of training and shortages of staff.

Divorce lawyer Anton Neethling, welcoming the move, said: "Blacklisting will help. The stricter the enforcement, the more readily people pay. It's as simple as that."

Jackie Branfield, of the KwaZulu-Natal child-rights group Operation Bobby Bear, which receives up to two maintenance default cases a day, said the incidence of maintenance defaults was "extreme", with both men and women getting away with it.

She said defaulting had tragic consequences for young children, with the poor suffering most.

"We are dealing with two divorce cases in which two senior KwaZulu-Natal government officials have thrown their wives and children literally onto the streets because the wives dared to fight for their and their children's rights," said Branfield.