Prime Minister Freundel Stuart is not apologising for establishing a fund to make sure mothers get child maintenance monies when fathers are delinquent.
Stating that a country’s first and paramount concern should be the welfare of its children, Stuart said the fund of $400 000, from which magistrates would pay mothers in order to avoid their frustrating and fruitless treks to the courts, was necessary at this time.
“This is absolutely necessary within the context of all that is going on in Barbados today . . . what better time to fix it than at a time when the world is going through the worst economic crisis in 100 years?,” he asked, adding that single mothers in particular were facing acute challenges of housing, employment and maintenancefor their children.
“We are not as bad as some countries, but in Barbados households are hurting and Government has taken cognizance of it,” he told Parliament today during debate on the passing of a Resolution to grant the sum of $400 000 from the Consolidated Fund and place it at Government’s disposal toward the child maintenance fund.
The Prime Minister, who first brought the idea of the fund to Parliament in 2009, warned that it was not another way of telling delinquent fathers that they didn’t have to maintain their children. He noted, in fact, that methodologies were also being put in place to recoup whatever Government would pay on behalf of delinquent fathers.
Full story in tomorrow’s MIDWEEK NATION
