President of the Single Fathers Association Rhondall Feeles says there must be a better way, time and place in which police officers can execute a maintenance warrant on a parent.
Feeles made this statement after he posted a social media video in which the police went to the home of a father and arrested him while he (the father) was holding his child.
He said, “I made a general reference not only to maintenance offences but also non-criminal offences. A speeding ticket, talking on your cell phone and non-payment of maintenance. If convicted of these things or sent to prison for maintenance, it is not reflected good on a certificate of character. My whole issue is that we are taking the same offence in which the execution of the warrant in which the criminal offender and the non-criminal offender is treated in the same manner,” he said.
Feeles said the non-payment of maintenance is a non-criminal offence and the problem is how the warrants were being executed by police officers.
“The reason is to have a standardisation or codification on how the warrants are executed on non-criminal offences as opposed to those who commit criminal offences,” he said.
He said sometimes the warrant officer takes a proactive approach in which they contact the home, meet the father and tell him to surrender or even surrender to the association.
Feeles further advised that the other parent involved should not receive money out of the court.
“Never to do so. Many have paid the money and never have the court order removed and sometimes months or years later it would have no value to show it was being paid or sometimes they (the parents) reconcile,” he said.
Feeles said sometimes the couple reconcile but the maintenance order remains in court.
“Make sure that the order has been stopped if you want to reconcile and get back together.”
He said sometimes non-custodial parents lose their jobs or are retrenched and this does not cause the maintenance to stop.
“The maintenance continues to accrue without a source of income, this is arrears of accruing on the man’s bill,” he said.
Feeles said there are also women who have maintenance orders and do not pay it.
“It had mothers owing thousands of dollars. If a survey is done and we look at the women I would challenge the Judiciary to present information showing the number of women that pay maintenance and the per cent who are consistent and the fact may be proven that men pay it better than women,” he said.
He said this data would determine if it is a dead beat father “thing” or truly an issue of the non-custodial parent having challenges to keep up with the maintenance system in T&T.
“Many of the men don’t take them to court because they are taught culturally that the man is the bread winner of the home. Because of this they take there responsibility without asking the mother for anything.
Attempts yesterday to contact Social Development and Family Services Minister Cherrie-Ann Crichlow-Cockburn proved futile.
