KOTA SAMARAHAN: The freezing of bank accounts for husbands who fail to pay alimony to their ex-wives will help to ensure the welfare of widows of non-civil servant husbands, says Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah.
The Minister for Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing noted that the situation differed between widows of civil servant and non-civil servant ex-husbands as the former had the capacity to automatically deduct alimony payment from their salaries.
“We fully support this initiative as this is a common issue faced by the ex-wives of non-civil servants.
“We found that many husbands had defaulted on alimony payments to their ex-wives, while there are also some who had skipped payments,” she said when fielding questions from the media at a function here on Tuesday (March 22).
Fatimah said the imposition of the penalty would generally help all widows, especially those who left to fend for themselves and their fatherless children.
“Even after being divorced, the husbands should still be good fathers to their children and their responsibilities to the family should remain.
“Sufficient affection and financial support should continue to be given to their wives and children.”
Apart from that, Fatimah said the alimony payments would complement the assistance given by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to eligible widows in the state.
She explained that the assistance was given under the department’s Children Assistance Scheme, which provides financial support of RM200 per month for children under two years old and RM150 for those over the age of two.
“These are only assistance given to the widows and do not serve as their alimony. That has to come from their ex-husbands,” she pointed out.
