What to do if maintenance is not being paid

Go back to the Maintenance Court. That is the short answer, and it is free.

This guide is part of our Maintenance in South Africa: the complete guide, which links every guide on the topic.

If there is a maintenance order and it is not being paid, the Maintenance Act 99 of 1998 gives the court real enforcement powers. It can order the money to be taken directly out of the defaulter's salary, send the sheriff to attach and sell their property, and have them prosecuted criminally. You do not need an attorney to start any of this.

The most common mistake is waiting. Arrears build, the defaulter gets used to not paying, and by the time you act there is a large debt that is harder to recover. Act in the first month or two.

Step one: gather the proof

Before you go to court, put together:

• A copy of the maintenance order or the divorce order containing the maintenance provisions.
• Bank statements covering the period, highlighting what came in and when. This is the single most important document. A schedule showing month, amount due, amount paid and shortfall is exactly what the maintenance officer needs.
• The defaulter's details: full name, identity number, address, employer's name and address, and any other income you know of.
• Any messages where they acknowledge the debt or explain why they have not paid.
• Your own identity document and the child's birth certificate.

If you were being paid in cash, that is harder to prove. Ask for payment into a bank account going forward, and say so in writing.

A worked example

Take Precious, a made-up mother with a maintenance order in place for her two children. The figures are illustrative only.

The order requires the father to pay R3 500 on the first of every month. He paid in full for a year, then paid R2 000 in March, nothing in April, R1 000 in May and nothing in June. Precious opens a spreadsheet with four columns: month, amount due, amount paid, shortfall. By the end of June the shortfall column adds up to R9 000. She prints her bank statements for those four months and highlights each deposit, and she saves the two messages in which he says he is "sorting it out".

In the first week of July she goes to the Maintenance Court with the order, the schedule, the statements, the messages and his employer's name. The maintenance officer opens a complaint of default and the father is summoned. At the hearing he says his hours were cut. The magistrate, seeing that he is still in formal employment, grants an emoluments attachment order: his employer must deduct the monthly R3 500 plus a fixed amount towards the R9 000 arrears and pay it over to Precious. If his income has genuinely dropped, the proper route for him is a separate application to vary the order, not silence.

Nothing in that example is a promise of what a court will do in your case. It shows what preparation looks like and why a four month delay is easier to fix than a four year one.

Step two: lodge the complaint

Go to the Maintenance Court at the Magistrates' Court, either where the order was made or where you live. Tell the clerk you want to lodge a complaint of default, sometimes called a maintenance enquiry into the failure to pay.

A maintenance officer opens the file, and the defaulter is summoned to explain themselves. If they do not attend, a warrant for their arrest can be issued.

If you do not know where they work or live, the Maintenance Court has maintenance investigators who can trace people and obtain financial information, including from employers and banks. Give the court whatever detail you have. Not knowing the employer is not a reason to stay at home.

Step three: the enforcement orders available

Once default is established, the court has several tools. It can use more than one.

An emoluments attachment order. This is the one that works most reliably. The court orders the defaulter's employer to deduct the maintenance, plus an amount towards arrears, from their salary and pay it over. The employer is legally obliged to comply. If the defaulter has a formal job, ask for this first.

Attachment of a debt. Where money is owed to the defaulter by a third party, for example a bank account, a pension pay out, a debtor or a tenant, the court can order that person to pay it over instead.

A warrant of execution. The sheriff attaches the defaulter's movable property and sells it, and the proceeds go towards the arrears.

Referral to credit bureaus, on paper. The Maintenance Amendment Act 2015 provided for a defaulter's personal details to be sent to credit bureaus. In 2022 the Minister of Justice told Parliament that this had not been implemented, because the law placed no matching duty on the bureaus to receive the information. The position had not changed by 2026. In a written reply to the National Council of Provinces published in 2026 (question 621), the Minister said the department had signed an agreement with the Social Justice Foundation and a credit bureau in November 2024 to set up a defaulter listing project, but that no maintenance defaulter's particulars had yet been forwarded to the credit bureau, because the department was still developing its system. Do not count on it; ask the maintenance officer whether it is being done at your court.

Criminal prosecution. Failing to pay maintenance in terms of a court order is a criminal offence. On conviction a person can be fined or imprisoned, and a court can also order the recovery of the arrears. The arrears do not disappear because someone is convicted.

Where the order was made by the High Court, contempt of court proceedings are another route, but that is a step that usually needs an attorney.

A realistic timeline

Lodging the complaint takes one visit. The defaulter then has to be summoned, which usually takes a few weeks, longer if they have to be traced. At the first appearance the magistrate can make an enforcement order immediately if the default is clear and the defaulter has no real answer, or the matter can be postponed for the defaulter to produce payslips or for an investigator to report. An emoluments attachment order starts producing money from the next pay run after the employer receives it. A warrant of execution or a criminal prosecution takes longer. From complaint to first money arriving, a straightforward matter with an employed defaulter often takes a couple of months. That is another reason not to wait a year before starting.

What if there is no order yet?

You cannot enforce an informal arrangement. If you only have a verbal agreement or a WhatsApp promise, your first step is to apply for a maintenance order, not to enforce one. That process is also free. See how child maintenance is calculated, and use our maintenance estimator to build the monthly budget you will need. The estimator is illustrative only and does not predict what a court will order.

An order can generally be backdated to the date of your application, which is another reason to apply early.

Common mistakes

Waiting for the arrears to become "worth it". The opposite is true. Small, recent arrears with an employed defaulter are the easiest to recover. Large, old arrears with a defaulter who has changed jobs twice are the hardest.

Accepting cash with no record. If cash is the only option, write a dated receipt for every payment and have the payer sign it, or ask for a photograph of the money and the date on a message.

Confronting the defaulter at work. It feels satisfying and it can cost you a harassment complaint. The emoluments attachment order reaches the employer through the court, which is the right channel.

Dropping the complaint after one payment. A single payment made the week before the hearing is a common tactic. Keep the complaint open until the arrears are cleared or an attachment order is in place.

Letting the children carry the message. Do not send a child to ask for the money or tell a child who is to blame. It is bad for the child and it appears in any later report about the family.

What not to do

Do not withhold contact. Maintenance and contact are separate legal duties. Stopping a parent from seeing the child because they have not paid does not help the child, does not get you paid, and will count against you if the arrangements for the children are ever revisited.

Do not take matters into your own hands. Removing property, going to their workplace or posting about them publicly can create problems for you, including a harassment complaint.

Do not accept a new informal arrangement without changing the order. If you agree to a lower amount to be helpful, get it made an order of court. Otherwise the original order stands and arrears accumulate on paper, which creates confusion later.

If you are the one who cannot pay

Go to the same court and apply to vary the order; the guide to changing a maintenance order explains the process. Bring proof of the change: a retrenchment letter, a medical report, a new payslip.

Simply paying less, or paying nothing, is not an option. The order stands until a court changes it, arrears accumulate whether or not you had a good reason, and you can be prosecuted. Courts are generally receptive to a parent who comes forward early with proof and a proposal, and unsympathetic to one who stops paying and waits to be summoned.

What to do this week

1. Find your copy of the maintenance order. If you have lost it, the court that made it can give you a copy.
2. Print or download bank statements for every month since the payments went wrong.
3. Build the four column schedule: month, due, paid, shortfall.
4. Save every message about payment to a folder the other parent cannot access.
5. Write down everything you know about where the defaulter works and lives.
6. Go to the Maintenance Court and lodge the complaint. Do not wait for one more promised payment.

Getting help

The Maintenance Court itself costs nothing and the staff are there to assist you with the forms. If your matter is complicated or you need advice, Legal Aid South Africa on 0800 110 110 has a means test, and university law clinics in most large centres help for free.

If the non payment is part of a wider pattern of control or intimidation, economic abuse is recognised under the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998, and a protection order can include emergency monetary relief. That is a separate free application at the same Magistrates' Court, and the GBV Command Centre on 0800 428 428 can help you think it through. In an emergency phone the police on 10111.