On June 1 the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) will implement most of the changes made under the Women's Charter Amendment Act which were passed in Parliament in January 2011.
The rest will be implemented on September 1.
The objectives of the amendments are to strengthen the enforcement of maintenance orders, to provide better support to parties affected by divorces as well as to address emerging trends on marriages and divorces.
These amendments were decided after studies and consultations with the public between 2009 and 2010.
From June 1 the courts can impose new sanctions and penalties on persons who default on maintenance orders, in addition to current penalties.
Complainants can also report maintenance debts to a credit bureau.
The courts can also ask the Central Provident Fund(CPF) Board to disclose the employment information of a defaulter for attachment of earnings orders.
In addition, Court summons and attachment of earnings orders can be served to respondents via registered post.
There will be new measures to divorce and marriage proceedings as well.
The Courts will be empowered to make ancillary orders for divorces that occur overseas, especially if the parties involved move back to Singapore following the divorce or if they have assets in Singapore.
Couples who are Singapore citizens (SC) and/or Singapore permanent residents (SPR) will no longer be required to fulfil a 15-day residence requirement prior to applying for a marriage licence in Singapore.
From September 1 the Minister will be able to prescribe certain groups of people to attend marriage preparation programmes before their marriage.
This is to ensure that divorce rates are kept to a minimum especially in the case of marriages involving minors.
Divorcees who remarry will be required to make a statutory declaration on whether they have outstanding maintenance orders and arrears, so that their potential spouses are aware of any such financial obligations.
In the case of divorcing couples with children under the age of 21, the courts will require in phases these couples to attend counselling and mediation to ensure that the couple will come to an agreement on child's best interests.
