Feeles: Retract your statement AG

President of the Single Fathers’ Association Rhondall Feeles said while he welcomed the passage of the Bill to legislate the electronic payment for child maintenance, the statement made by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has bitterly offended the thousands of fathers who have for decades been the victims of a broken child maintenance system.

In an interview today, Feeles said the AG’s reasoning, “reducing the indignity that mothers faced to line up to collect the money”, needs to be retracted.

“I am wondering if that is the only justification and data that they have found. Primarily, the inefficiency affected the life of the child, which should be of paramount importance. The delay in payments when the cashiers are closed and fathers cannot make the payments affect the child being maintained.

“Definitely it should have been centred around the child while they showed the importance now of removing that cumbersome process they had previously, by implementing this new process which would make the lives of the parents particularly a lot less frustrating. Whether the parent was paying or collecting maintenance. That is my grievance, the way in which it has been stated.”