A Glimpse at Financial Hardship and Child Support Issues among Divorced Single Mothers in Malaysia Zarina Md Nor, PhD Universiti Sains Malaysia Silvia Zia Islam, PhD RMIT University Melbourne Hong Kong Child Support and Maintenance Conference 2015

Acknowledgement We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for the travel grant from the university’s International Conference Fund and also to the organizer of the ‘Recovery of Child Support and Family Maintenance in Asia Pacific and Worldwide: National and Regional Systems and the Hague 2007 Convention and Protocol’ conference for sponsoring the conference accommodation in Hong Kong November 20152

Introduction Single mothers in Malaysia mostly consist of widows and divorcees, followed by a small number of permanently separated women. The death of husbands remains the main route to single motherhood. Marriage is literally the only way of having children as premarital birth is socially and religiously unsupported November 20153

Motivation of study The plight of (low income) single mothers and their children is yet to receive wide attention among academia. The absent of regular and/or insufficient payment of child support is a common issue faced by single mothers. Moreover, published studies on child support topics in Malaysia are very limited November 20154

Malaysian Family Law In Malaysia there are different family law systems for Muslim and non-Muslim The Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 was enforced in 1982 governs the non Muslims whilst the Muslims are governed by the Islamic Law System 9-11 November 20155

Islamic Family Law Provisions from the Malaysian Islamic Family Law dictates that the court has to decide the maintenance amount based on the husband’s ability and the needs of the wife and children. This provision is too general and does not specifically define the terms ability and needs used to calculate the maintenance amount November 20156

Maintenance Amount The concept of kifayah (adequacy) and ma‘ruf (kindness) are applied by the judges in Malaysian Sharia Courts. The Sharia judges have taken into consideration several criteria in their judgement to clarify and measure the kifayah and ma’ruf concepts which reflects that the modern socio economic conditions. (Ahmad, Azahari & Rahman 2013) 9-11 November 20157

Focus of Preliminary Study Malay Muslim divorced women with children - Divorce happens in higher rates among Muslim couples compared to the non Muslims - Custody usually given to mothers and joint custody is yet to be formally implemented 9-11 November 20158

Preliminary study on Child Support (N=15) Age at divorceNo of childrenIncome (RM)Education level Types of work Shared custody Child support Payment 3831k-2kHigh School Account supervisor YesSometimes 3214k-5kDegree Teacher NoSometimes 3031k-2kHigh School Factory worker No 3923k-4kDegree Teacher No 48More than 31k-2kDiploma Technician Yes 3614k-5kDegree HR officer NoSometimes 182Less than 1kSecondary Admin clerk NoYes 381More than 5kPhD Lecturer No 351More than 5kPhD Lecturer YesNo 351More than 5kPhD Lecturer YesNo 392More than 5kPhD Lecturer NoYes 2722k-3kHigh School Admin officer NoSometimes 3932k-3kHigh School Secretary No 36More than 33k-4kDegree Marketing executive YesNo 4732k-3kHigh School Marketing personel No 9-11 November 20159

Summary of Results Mean age at divorce = 35.8 years Number of children Shared custody = 33% Child support payment No of ChildrenPercentages 133% 227% 3 More than 313% Yes13% Sometimes27% No53% 9-11 November

Conclusion Non-payment of child support worsen financial hardship faced by single mothers Single mothers’ income from employment mitigate the effect of non payment of child support by absent fathers Child support issue needs to be seriously considered by policymaker as it may affects the wellbeing of children in single mothers’ households 9-11 November

Thank you 9-11 November