LEGAL AID: She’s 18. Must I pay child maintenance?

Hi Eric,

I have a daughter who is 18 years old. I would like to stop supporting her financially because she is an adult now. Please advice me.

Thank you. This question is important and timely for us and our readers particularly because many who face such challenges often suffer in prolonged silence.

From the tone of your asking, though this is interpretive, it is clear that you find it a burden to continue taking care of your daughter who is above 18 years.

You have not indicated whether she is in your residence under direct care or stays away from you, likely with the mother, if you are unmarried. Four issues emerge that require us to canvass in order to find justification as to why you think stopping payment for your 18-year-old daughter is the best thing to do.

First is to outline parental roles towards the welfare, interests and needs of their children, which the law defines as rights.

Second is to develop a general understanding as to when the term child support is used in our social and legal conversations.

Third, is to create a short conversation of social and legal parameters of parenting. Fourth, is to highlight when any parent may have to continue support to their child even after 18 years.

RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

A parent is either biological or an adopter. This definition includes those people who act as parents known foster parents and guardians.

In an umbrella perspective and within legal recognition of parenthood, none of these persons is lesser when it comes to parental responsibility.

All are obligated to offer quality care to their children, and where a couple is involved, expectations of equal and non-discriminate responsibility is anticipated by the law.

Section 6 of the Children’s Act in the larger confines at Article 53 (1-e) of the Constitution, inclines every child to parental care including equal responsibility of the mother and father to provide for the child whether, married or not.

To contextualise the responsibility of parents, it is necessary to invite Constitutional provisions at Article 43, which emphasise right to highest attainable standards of health, including reproductive health care, central in explaining support to your daughter, if at all.

Further, parents are to ensure their children are in adequate housing, enjoy reasonable sanitation, find and use adequate amounts of quality food besides access education in the bigger context of a reliable social security system.

Child support in its social construction comes with the natural mandate of one being a parent. It is expected by the society that one’s son or daughter will not lack or languish in the state of lacking, especially about basic needs such as those mentioned earlier in this write up.

INVITATION TO CHILD SUPPORT ARENA

However, the law also anticipates invitation into the child support arena, when social mechanisms fail to protect children from unnecessary suffering(s). When man or woman fails to live up to the threshold set by parenthood with regard to the products of their loins, even in liberal societies, the law often steps in to rein over irresponsibility. From this part of the conversation, it is indicative that the law only comes into play whenever the social support system seems unlikely to guarantee a child proper care.

The Children’s Act in the mother spirit offered by the Constitution considers a child to be any person below the age of 18. In this scenario, every parent by all the definitions that place children under their care have no option but to cater for the welfare, needs and interests of their children. As a right this is captured at section 4 (3) of the Children’s Act in pursuant to Article 53 of the Constitution which obligates not only parents but courts and other administrative institutions to take decisions that best reflect the interests of the child.

In principle therefore, child maintenance terminates at age 18, nonetheless, there are circumstances that may demand extension of this parental responsibility upon intervention by the court. In a case before the High Court, Justice Aggrey Muchelule in 2019, while departing from a decision of a lower court offered the following as basis upon which support can be extended beyond the age of majority; first the child in question may be having a disability and require specialised care. Second, the child could be suffering from an illness or ailment which require medical care beyond the age of 18. Similarly, the above-18 child, may be pursuing education and training which currently is being paid for by the particular parent and extends beyond their age. In your question, we do not have sufficient information with regard to any special circumstances likely faced by your daughter and cannot with finality give you wisdom to abscond this responsibility. However, you are at liberty to contest the support you give her, citing circumstances and reasons that motivate your desire to terminate the same before a competent court of law.