South Africa - How To Apply for more financial maintenance

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Procedure

Apply In-Person:

1. To apply for an increase in financial maintenance in person, the person who receives the maintenance must visit the nearest Magistrate’s court in the location where you and the child resides.
2. The contacts and address information of the Regional offices of the Magistrate’s court can be found in the following link:Link
3. Visit the office of the Magistrate’s court and request an application form to apply for an increase in the maintenance received for the child in your care, from the concerned department.
4. Complete the application form with relevant details and information as required appropriately and legibly, to avoid refusals.
5. Make sure that you have all the documents listed in the “Required documents” section of this page.
6. Attach all those documents with the completed application form and proceed to submit it to the Maintenance officer. Also pay the fees at the office (if any).
7. Then, the application and the attached documents will be forwarded to respective departments to get validated by various concerned authorities.
8. Once when all the furnished information is found correct and stated reason is found sufficient, the maintenance officer will make amendments for the increase in the maintenance.

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Required Documents

• Complete statement of income and expenditure
• Reason for the claim to increase the maintenance in writing
• Identification document for the applicant and child (if applicable)
• Proof that you are receiving a maintenance from the concerned person

Office Locations & Contacts

Department of Justice and Constitutional Development Head Office
Physical Adsress: Momentum Centre, 329
Pretorius Street,
Pretoria,
0001
South Africa
Postal Adsress:Private Bag X81
Pretoria,
0001
South Africa
Tel: 080 002 0007
Email:[email protected]
Website link

Eligibility

• The person applying to claim more maintenance must have a sufficient reason for the claim to be approved.
• The applicant must be receiving maintenance for the concerned child, before applying for an increment.

Fees

• Please contact the office of the Magistrate’s court in which you apply, for the fees structure.
  

Validity

Explain the time until which the certificate/document is valid.
e.g. Birth Certificate Valid Forever

Documents to Use

• Application forms will be available at any office of the Magistrate’s court.
  

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

Please explain processing time taken in obtaining the document/certificate.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type='website'>video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the '&' inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver,
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M' Video ID is 'Y0US7oR_t3M'.

Instructions

• A maintenance officer and an investigator will investigate your claim and look into your circumstances.
• The court will serve a summons (a letter instructing a person to come to court) on the respondent (the person against whom the claim is brought) to appear in court on a specific date to discuss the matter.
• The respondent then has a choice between agreeing to pay the maintenance as claimed, or contesting the matter in court.
• If the respondent agrees to pay the maintenance as claimed, a magistrate will review the relevant documentation. He or she will then make an order, and may decide to do so without requiring the parties to appear in court.

Required Information

• Particulars of the Applicant and child
• Identification number
• Expenditure and income information

Need for the Document

• The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has the provision to increase the maintenance received by a caretaker of the child concerned on proper application at the Magistrate court’s office.
  

Information which might help

• Your view of the other parent's behavior has no effect on your children's right to maintenance. You still have to pay maintenance, even if the other parent remarries, is involved in another relationship, does not allow you to see the children or if either party later has more children.
• Your duty to pay maintenance and your right of access to your children is two entirely separate matters and one has no relation to the other. Furthermore, children of either party do not influence the duty to support.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

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Others

More information which might help people.