How a new conciliation route can resolve years of unpaid divorce maintenance beyond the courtroom
Aiming to set ex-spouses on a stable footing and avoid future disputes, maintenance enforcement officers have attended to more than 1,500 cases as of Jul 29.
Chloe (not her real name) went through the new maintenance enforcement process to recover support payments her ex-husband owed. (Photo: CNA/Alyssa Tan)
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SINGAPORE: For over a decade after her 2014 divorce, Chloe (not her real name) never received the monthly court-ordered maintenance payments owed to her.
The monthly sums were already modest, set at S$200 (US$155) for their son and a nominal S$1 in spousal support for herself. But the arrears crept up over the years, accruing to about S$28,000 in total.
The thought of chasing her ex-husband for payment – which would have involved applying for a court order – felt daunting, so Chloe let it slide to focus on rebuilding her life.
It was only this year, when her son turned 17 and entered a polytechnic, that Chloe decided that she wanted to enforce the maintenance order.
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“It was a weight in my heart that I didn’t do enough for my son,” said the 45-year-old administrative assistant, who earns S$2,800 a month.
“He’s growing, and I’m still not really in my financial stability yet. Even this little amount actually will still go to him and help with his expenses.”
To enforce the payments, Chloe filed her case with the Maintenance Enforcement Division of the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) and underwent conciliation with her ex-husband.
It turned out he had been out of work for many years. He was overwhelmed by the situation and in need of support himself, said Ms Istyana Putri Ibrahim, the maintenance enforcement officer who handled their case.
Comprising 30 officers, the Maintenance Enforcement Division is a new outfit that opened in January last year.
Replacing mediation in the Family Justice Courts, the conciliation process offers a less adversarial alternative to enforcing payments through a court hearing.
Unlike Family Justice Courts mediators – who can be staff, volunteers and specially appointed judges – maintenance enforcement officers are MinLaw staff who are given fact-finding powers and play a more active role in recommending solutions.
And unlike lawyers, they are neutral parties who talk to both ex-spouses to help them reach an agreement about what to do going forward.
Although Chloe was owed more than 10 years of maintenance, claims are subject to a three-year time bar.
Through the conciliation, her ex-husband agreed to pay off arrears of about S$7,800 in instalments of S$100 a month. He also recommitted to paying the ongoing monthly maintenance of S$201.
In Chloe’s case, her ex-husband was not defiant or defensive, said Ms Istyana, who is the acting director for maintenance enforcement.
“He was just someone who also needed some guidance and support on his end,” she said.
“We needed to get him to acknowledge that, yes, he has a responsibility towards his son, and he needs to commit to a structured plan. And he also needs to commit to a plan for himself.”
Ms Istyana facilitated his referral to the National Trades Union Congress’ Employment and Employability Institute to help him find work, and also directed him to social support services.
Chloe and her ex-husband were able to reach agreement within one conciliation session.
“I felt the weight in my heart actually lighten a bit, and I felt I did something very right,” said Chloe of her experience in the conciliation.
“I really didn’t know that I had that courage to actually do something so well for the first time, I think, in my life.”
HANDLED MORE THAN 1,500 CASES
In response to CNA’s queries, MinLaw said more than 1,500 cases of maintenance enforcement have been referred to the division as of Jul 29 this year.
This is a sizeable share of the roughly 1,700 maintenance enforcement applications the Family Justice Courts receive annually in recent years.
The division covers claims under the Women’s Charter, the Guardianship of Infants Act, the Administration of Muslim Law Act and the Maintenance of Parents Act. Applicants include both men and women.
Its work began in phases from Jan 16, 2025. Since Jul 1 this year, the mechanism has been open to all enforcement applications under these Acts.
This new route, dubbed the “maintenance enforcement process”, was introduced to fill persistent gaps, MinLaw told CNA.
Before, maintenance claimants often had to return to court multiple times to enforce orders, and outcomes were not always durable.
The new process is forward-looking and meant to put both sides on a stable footing to prevent future disputes, said chief maintenance enforcement officer Leong Kwang Ian.
“Rather than looking at past breaches, it seeks to understand the underlying issues bringing about non-payment of maintenance, and then it helps parties with practical and sustainable solutions.”
In the traumatic process of a family breaking apart, this helps to reduce emotional difficulties for all involved, including the children who tend to bear the most impact, said Mr Leong.
WHAT HAPPENS IN CONCILIATION
The highest arrears recouped in a single case under the maintenance enforcement process so far amounted to over S$400,000, with ongoing monthly maintenance of S$4,000.
The median amount of arrears collected is about S$8,400, while the mean amount is about S$17,700.
But the process extends beyond financial recovery, offering support to both parties rather than just the receiving ex-spouse.
Generally, cases conclude within just over a month – less than the time needed to prepare for a court hearing, said MinLaw. The settlement rate for conciliation cases is around 70 per cent, meaning that a majority do not proceed to a full hearing.
Emotions can run high during conciliation as people come in with past grievances and hurts. But the officer’s job is to steer the conversation towards the future, said Ms Istyana.
“It’s really important that I try to make them feel heard, so give them some airtime to let off some steam,” said maintenance enforcement officer Nur Khalishah Roslan.
Once this happens, people tend to open up and the meeting can become an occasion to work through their misunderstandings.
She recalled one case where it emerged that an ex-husband was not paying maintenance not just due to financial difficulty, but also because he was disappointed that he could not meet his children.
This turned out to be a misunderstanding, and the conciliation became an opportunity for him and his ex-wife to clarify his access to the kids.
“I think that was the turning point. That’s when he realised, actually he could have maybe tried harder to have a relationship with the children,” said Ms Khalishah.
EXPANDING ACCESS
The new maintenance enforcement process builds in fact-finding powers that allow officers to seek information about an individual’s financial situation without requiring court orders.
Balanced by legal safeguards, these powers help to keep the enforcement process non-adversarial, said chief maintenance enforcement officer Mr Leong.
This is because a neutral party is openly retrieving the information, as opposed to lawyers covertly digging for data as they would for a court hearing, he said.
Officers typically seek information from the Central Provident Fund Board to understand individual income; the Housing and Development Board and Singapore Land Authority for property ownership; the Land Transport Authority for vehicle ownership; the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority for business shareholdings; and the Ministry of Social and Family Development to find out if the individual is receiving financial assistance.
They can also obtain records on investment holdings from the Central Depository, and on bankruptcy administration from the Official Assignee.
They must still seek a court order to obtain information from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and banks.
Lawyer Nur Liyana Kamaludin, senior legal counsel at Titanium Law Chambers, said the fact-finding powers are a key distinction of the new maintenance enforcement process.
When a case goes to court and an ex-spouse who is supposed to pay maintenance tries to hide his or her true financial position, lawyers have to file an application to unearth assets in a process called discovery.
“Multiple rounds of discovery would mean a lot of costs for our clients,” said Ms Liyana. She has had clients decide not to seek enforcement in court because they expect their ex-spouses to be uncooperative and the costs to add up.
Under the maintenance enforcement process, applicants are not charged any fees for conciliation or fact-finding services.
If a settlement is not reached in conciliation, the information found through fact-finding will be submitted to the Family Justice Courts for the full hearing.
This will help the court to make more targeted and effective enforcement orders to recover the arrears, said MinLaw. It has already happened in some cases heard by the courts.
Ms Liyana is particularly hopeful for middle-income claimants sandwiched between the lower income ceiling for legal aid, and the higher income levels needed to afford their own legal representation.
“If it’s going to be that simple, that they can just file the application and then immediately they get help from the maintenance enforcement officer, I can literally just do an advisory role,” she said.
This means she can charge as little as S$500 if a client still wants a legal consultation on what to expect and what they are entitled to, and for her to look through their application documents to make sure all is sound.
While the amounts of maintenance recouped through this process may not all be immense, they still make a difference to the families involved.
“It affects the lives of ex-spouses and children, brings about certainty for people to carry on with school, classes, the ability to see the doctor if they’re ill,” said Mr Leong.
“The break-up of a family is itself a sufficiently traumatic experience for everybody concerned,” he added.
“The ability for us to perhaps ‘hand-hold’ applicants through this journey to make it easier is one big factor that we should view as a big advantage to having this programme.”
Source: CNA/dv(nj)
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