PART 9 | ENFORCEMENT OF MAINTENANCE ORDERS |
| Interpretation of this Part |
80. In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires —| “defendant”, in relation to a maintenance order or a related attachment of earnings order, means the person liable to make payments under the maintenance order; |
“earnings”, in relation to a defendant, means any sums payable to the defendant —| (a) | by way of wages or salary, including any fees, bonus, commission, overtime pay or other emoluments payable in addition to wages or salary by the person paying the wages or salary or payable under a contract of service; | | (b) | by way of pension, including an annuity in respect of past services, whether or not the services were rendered to the person paying the annuity, and including periodical payments by way of compensation for the loss, abolition or relinquishment, or any diminution in the emoluments, of any office or employment; | | (c) | if the defendant is a self-employed person, by way of payments received from self‑employment; |
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| “employer” means a person by whom, as a principal and not as an employee or agent, earnings fall to be paid to a defendant, and references to payment of earnings are to be construed accordingly; |
“maintenance order” means —| (a) | an order for the payment of a monthly allowance made or deemed to be made by a court under Part 8; | | (b) | an order for the payment of periodical sums by way of maintenance or alimony to a wife or former wife or an incapacitated husband or incapacitated former husband, or by way of maintenance for the benefit of any child, under Part 10; | | (c) | an order for maintenance made by the Syariah Court under the Administration of Muslim Law Act 1966; | | (d) | an order for maintenance made under the Maintenance of Parents Act 1995; and | | (e) | a maintenance order, as defined in section 2 of the Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1975, which is registered or confirmed by the court under that Act. [27/2014; 7/2016] |
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| Power of court to make attachment of earnings order |
81.—(1) A court may, when ordering the payment of maintenance under Part 8 or at any time thereafter, if the court considers just, make an attachment of earnings order to secure payment of the maintenance.| (2) A Family Court may make an attachment of earnings order to secure payments the defendant is required to make under a maintenance order made by the General Division of the High Court. [27/2014; 40/2019] |
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| Service of attachment of earnings order |
| 81A.—(1) Despite anything in the Criminal Procedure Code 2010, an attachment of earnings order made by a court may be served on the person to whom the order is directed by prepaid registered post at the last known address of his or her place of residence or business (including the registered address of his or her place of business). [2/2011] | (2) Any attachment of earnings order sent by prepaid registered post to any person in accordance with subsection (1) is deemed to be duly served on the person to whom the order is directed at the time when the order would in the ordinary course of post be delivered. [2/2011] |
| (3) In proving service by prepaid registered post, it is sufficient to prove that the cover containing the attachment of earnings order was properly addressed, stamped and posted by prepaid registered post. [2/2011] |
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| Nature of attachment of earnings order |
82.—(1) An attachment of earnings order requires the person to whom the order in question is directed, being a person appearing to the court to be the defendant’s employer, to make out of the earnings falling to be paid to the defendant payments in satisfaction of the order.| (2) The amount to be prescribed in an attachment of earnings order is such sum as to the court seems reasonable after taking into account the resources and needs of the defendant and the needs of persons for whom the defendant must or reasonably should provide. |
| (3) An attachment of earnings order must contain, so far as they are known to the court making the order, such particulars as may be prescribed for the purpose of enabling the defendant to be identified by the person to whom the order is directed. |
| (4) An attachment of earnings order or any variation thereof does not come into force until the expiration of 7 days from the date when a copy of the order is served on the person to whom the order is directed. |
| (5) An attachment of earnings order must designate the officer to whom the payments under the order are to be made. |
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| Effect of attachment of earnings order |
83.—(1) When an attachment of earnings order is made, all other proceedings for the enforcement of the related maintenance order begun before the making of the attachment of earnings order must be suspended.| (2) The court by which an attachment of earnings order has been made may, if it thinks fit, on the application of the defendant or a person entitled to receive payments under the related maintenance order, make an order discharging or varying the attachment of earnings order. |
(3) An attachment of earnings order ceases to have effect —| (a) | upon the issue of a warrant directing that the amount due under the related maintenance order must be levied in the manner provided by law for levying fines; | | (b) | upon the making of an order sentencing the defendant to imprisonment for failure to comply with the related maintenance order; | | (c) | upon the making of a garnishee order under section 71(1)(c); and | | (d) | upon the rescission of the related maintenance order. |
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| (4) Where an attachment of earnings order ceases to have effect under subsection (3), the court making the order must give notice of the cessation to the person to whom the order was directed. |
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| Duty of defendant and employer to comply with attachment of earnings order |
84.—(1) A person to whom an attachment of earnings order is directed must, despite anything in any other written law but subject to the provisions of this Part, comply with the order or, if the order is subsequently varied under section 83, with the order as so varied.(2) Where, on any occasion on which earnings fall to be paid to a defendant, there are in force 2 or more attachment of earnings orders relating to those earnings, then, for the purpose of complying with this Part, the employer must —| (a) | deal with those orders according to the respective dates on which they came into force disregarding any later order until all earlier orders have been dealt with; and | | (b) | deal with any later order as if the earnings to which it relates were the residue of the defendant’s earnings after the making of any payment under this Part pursuant to any earlier order. |
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| (3) An employer who, pursuant to an attachment of earnings order, makes a payment under this Part must give to the defendant a statement in writing specifying the amount of that payment. |
| (4) A person to whom an attachment of earnings order is directed who, at the time when a copy of the order is served on the person, has on no occasion during the period of one month immediately preceding that time been the defendant’s employer must forthwith give notice in writing to that effect in the prescribed form to the court which made the order. |
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| Additional powers of court in attachment of earnings order proceedings |
85.—(1) Where proceedings relating to an attachment of earnings order are brought in any court, the court may, either before or at the hearing —| (a) | order the defendant to give to the court, within such period as may be specified by the order, a statement signed by him or her of —| (i) | the name and address of the defendant’s employer, or of each of the defendant’s employers if he or she has more than one; | | (ii) | such particulars as to the defendant’s earnings as may be so specified; and | | (iii) | such prescribed particulars as may be so specified for the purpose of enabling the defendant to be identified by any employer of his or hers; |
| | (b) | order any person appearing to the court to be an employer of the defendant to give to the court, within such period as may be specified by the order, a statement signed by the person or on the person’s behalf of such particulars as may be specified by the order of all earnings of the defendant which fell to be paid by that person during such period as may be so specified; and | | (c) | order the Central Provident Fund Board to furnish a statement to the person who took out the proceedings stating the following information, if such information is available to the Board based on records kept by the Board:| (i) | the name and address of the defendant’s employer or employers or, if the defendant is unemployed, the defendant’s last known employer or employers in the 12 months immediately preceding the date of the order; and | | (ii) | the contributions (if any) made by the defendant or his or her employer to the defendant’s Central Provident Fund account in the 12 months immediately preceding the date of the order. [2/2011] |
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| (2) A document purporting to be such a statement as is mentioned in subsection (1) is, in any such proceedings as are so mentioned, to be received in evidence and be deemed to be such a statement without further proof unless the contrary is shown. |
| (3) In this section, “employer” has the meaning given by section 2(1) of the Central Provident Fund Act 1953. [2/2011] |
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| Obligation of defendant and employer to notify changes of employment and earnings |
86. While an attachment of earnings order is in force —| (a) | the defendant must from time to time notify in writing the court which made the order of every occasion on which the defendant leaves any employment, or becomes employed or re‑employed, not later (in each case) than 7 days from the date on which the defendant did so; | | (b) | the defendant must, on any occasion when the defendant becomes employed or re‑employed, include in his or her notification under paragraph (a) particulars of his or her earnings and anticipated earnings from the relevant employment; and | | (c) | any person who becomes the defendant’s employer and knows that the order is in force and by what court it was made must, within 7 days of the person becoming the defendant’s employer or of acquiring that knowledge (whichever is the later), notify that court in writing that the person is the defendant’s employer, and include in that notification a statement of the defendant’s earnings and anticipated earnings. |
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| Power of court to determine what are earnings |
87.—(1) The court by which an attachment of earnings order has been made must, on the application of the person to whom the order is directed or of the defendant or of the person in whose favour the order was made, determine whether payments to the defendant of a particular class or description specified by the application are earnings for the purposes of that order; and the person to whom the order is directed is entitled to give effect to any determination for the time being in force under this subsection.| (2) A person to whom an attachment of earnings order is directed who makes an application under subsection (1) does not incur any liability for failing to comply with the order as regards any payments of the class or description specified by the application which are made by the person to the defendant while the application, or any appeal in consequence thereof, is pending. |
| (3) Subsection (2) does not apply as regards such payments if that person subsequently withdraws the application or abandons the appeal, as the case may be. |
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| Payment of money under attachment of earnings order |
88.—(1) The court to whom an employer pays any sum pursuant to an attachment of earnings order is to pay that sum to the person entitled to receive payments under the related maintenance order as is specified by the attachment of earnings order.| (2) Any sums received by virtue of an attachment of earnings order by the court are deemed to be payments made by the defendant, so as to discharge first any sums for the time being due and unpaid under the related maintenance order (a sum due at an earlier date being discharged before a sum due at a later date) and secondly any costs incurred in proceedings relating to the maintenance order which were payable by the defendant when the attachment of earnings order was made or last varied. |
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| Earnings paid by Government or out of Consolidated Fund |
89.—(1) In relation to earnings falling to be paid by the Government or out of the Consolidated Fund, the earnings shall be treated as falling to be paid by the chief officer for the time being of the department, office or other body concerned.| (2) If any question arises, in connection with any proceedings relating to an attachment of earnings order, as to what department, office or other body is concerned for the purposes of this section, or as to who for those purposes is the chief officer thereof, that question is to be referred to and determined by the Minister for Finance but that Minister is not under any obligation to consider a reference under this subsection unless it is made by a court. |
| (3) A document purporting to set out a determination of the Minister for Finance under subsection (2) and to be signed by an official of the Ministry of Finance is, in any such proceedings as are mentioned in that subsection, admissible in evidence and deemed to contain an accurate statement of such a determination unless the contrary is shown. |
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| 90. A court before which proceedings relating to an attachment of earnings order are brought may make such order as to costs as it thinks fit. |
| Penalties for non-compliance with attachment of earnings order and for giving false notice or statement |
91.—(1) Any person who —| (a) | fails to comply with section 84(1) or (4) or section 86, or an order of a court under section 85(1); | | (b) | gives such a notice as is mentioned in section 84(4) or a statement pursuant to an order of a court under section 85(1), which notice or statement the person knows to be false in a material particular; or | | (c) | recklessly gives such a notice or statement which is false in a material particular, |
| shall, subject to subsection (2), be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both. |
| (2) It is a defence for a person charged with failing to comply with section 84(1) to prove that the person took all reasonable steps to comply with the attachment of earnings order to which the failure relates. |
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