Singaporean Man Requests Maintenance From Ex-Wife Through Court As Kids Now Live With Him
A Singaporean man recently requested the family court to ask his ex-wife to pay maintenance for their children after they came to live with him.
The couple had divorced in September 2018, following which their two children went to stay with their mother.
At the time, the court had ordered the man to pay his ex-wife a monthly maintenance sum of S$2,640 for their children’s welfare. However, their children came to stay with their father instead in October 2021.
Source: Google Maps
As a result, the man is now asking the family court to reverse the maintenance order and get his ex-wife to pay the same amount to him instead.
Ex-wife argues for proportional maintenance
Citing a judgment published on Thursday (15 Jun), Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reported the ex-wife as saying that the maintenance should be in proportion to her and the man’s respective incomes.
She explained that she had recently embarked on a new career as a financial adviser.
Prior to that, she said she used to have a higher income, which led to her and her ex-husband agreeing to share their children’s expenses equally.
However, circumstances changed after she was let go from her previous job. She alleged that her ex-husband reported her to her former employers and the regulatory authority for misconduct.
In her new role, she said she is currently earning a commission-based income of approximately S$3,000 per month.
Hence, this would not enable her to afford the S$2,640 fee, she argued.
As an alternative, she proposed a monthly payment of around S$790. This is equivalent to a quarter of her current income and about 10% to 15%of the children’s expenses.
Judge orders ex-wife to pay S$1,000 monthly instead
Due to the fluctuating nature of the ex-wife’s income, District Judge Adriene Cheong decided to assess both parents’ earning capacities rather than focusing on specific monetary figures.
The judge determined that the father had an earning capacity of about S$20,000, while the ex-wife’s was roughly S$5,000.
As a result, she ordered the latter to pay S$1,000 monthly — or S$500 for each child — directly into her ex-husband’s bank account.
Judge Cheong stated that the children’s mother should have ample time to establish herself in her new role.
Furthermore, based on the man’s earning capacity, he is in a position “to provide comfortably for the children”, she added.
Judge Cheong also said that if they had stayed married, they would have had the duty to support each other through financial difficulties as well.
Judge rejects man’s request to have maintenance backdated
The children’s father had asked the court to backdate his ex-wife’s maintenance payments to November 2021. This was in accordance with when the two children came to stay with him.
However, Judge Cheong denied this request, deeming it an “overly technical mathematical exercise” that’s meaningless to “parents who were committed to their children”.
She stressed that the children should not be treated as an accounting expense that ought to be reimbursed.
Additionally, she also emphasized the importance of maintaining a healthy co-parenting relationship, urging both to exercise grace and patience moving forward.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.
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