Gauteng cracks down on child support defaulters with credit blacklisting pilot
A new initiative aims to hold persistent defaulters accountable by reporting them to credit bureaus.
Debt. Picture: Pixabay
702's Bongani Bingwa is joined by Executive Director of the Social Justice Foundation, Anneke Greyvenstein.
Listen below:
Relief is on the horizon for thousands of Gauteng parents who are going through the frustration of chasing overdue child support.
A groundbreaking pilot project is rolling out in 10 courts across the province, targeting persistent child maintenance defaulters with a powerful tool - blacklisting with credit bureaus.
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The initiative comes eight months after the Department of Justice and Social Justice Foundation confirmed its implementation, and experts say it's set to bring some much needed teeth to enforcing child support payments.
"Once the maintenance is in arrears for more than 10 days, parties need to go back to the court and apply for the enforcement of a maintenance order. The court will then grant another order, and then we will continue to make contact with the parties... and only then will the information be given to CPD."
- Anneke Greyvenstein, Executive Director - Social Justice Foundation
"Arrears maintenance will reflect on the party's credit profile, and when the credit provider does the affordability assessment, that will obviously be taken into account."
- Anneke Greyvenstein, Executive Director - Social Justice Foundation
Those found to be in default will feel the consequences of their failure to pay up.
"They should not qualify for additional credit if their maintenance is not up-to-date."
- Anneke Greyvenstein, Executive Director - Social Justice Foundation
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Greyvenstein says there will be a two-level verification system to ensure that the information being given to credit bureaus is correct.
"We first work with the courts and then we speak to both parties, because it's very important that the information that we submit to the credit industry is accurate and up-to-date."
- Anneke Greyvenstein, Executive Director - Social Justice Foundation
"We work from court orders... so there's no emotion in this, no malice."
- Anneke Greyvenstein, Executive Director - Social Justice Foundation
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