A fairer deal for parents and children

Proposed changes to the law on the maintenance of parents aim to strike a balance between safeguarding vulnerable seniors and protecting children from the misuse of the law. The changes would help to preserve the spirit of the law but refine its operation so that it is fairer to all sides in family disputes. The Maintenance of Parents Act, passed in 1995, established the legal parameters of Singapore as a society that values filial piety. The Act allows Singapore residents aged 60 years and above who are unable to provide for themselves to claim maintenance from their children who are capable of supporting them but are not doing so. Amendments to the Act enabled the authorities to do more to help resolve maintenance disputes amicably. The law prioritised conciliation over legal action in the spirit of preserving family ties. It is those ties that form the basis of filial piety.

The changes being proposed now advance that logic. One of the proposals is that parents with a record of abusing, neglecting or abandoning their children would be required to first ask the Tribunal for the Maintenance of Parents for permission before embarking on the compulsory process of conciliation with their children to try to resolve their differences. If conciliation fails, seniors can take their grievances to the tribunal, which will decide whether and how much maintenance should be awarded.

What this proposal does is to add a filter to the maintenance process that acknowledges the harm suffered by children to whom abusive parents turn for support in old age. While aged and indigent parents should remain the responsibility of their grown-up children who are capable of maintaining them, the extent of that responsibility should be calibrated by how the children themselves fared when they were being raised. Abusive parentage should not qualify anyone for expectations of filial piety. The proposed change is progressive in the sense that, currently, the child has to explain why he refuses to pay maintenance and may have to relive past trauma in the process of getting the maintenance claim dismissed. The proposed change places the onus on the abusive parent to prove why the application should be considered.

Other proposed changes would enable the tribunal to dismiss frivolous or vexatious applications without the need for children to explain why they should not be made to support their parents. Also, the tribunal could introduce non-monetary orders such as requiring parents with a gambling problem or other addictions to attend counselling. Then, the authorities could gain the power to contact the children of destitute seniors to attend a mandatory conciliation session with their parents. Taken together, the amendments would provide a level playing field for both sides.