18 “Terrace Review — Wednesiay, May 25, i988 a Tee _ Maintenance order enforcemen beginning in

Initiatives for strengthening the family were announced last month by the B.C. government, and included is a new Family

Maintenance Enforcement pro- ©

gram, to be operational by sum- mer. New legislation and $15 million over two years will help separated parents with custody — still mainly mothers — to ob- tain overdue support payments, without the time and expense of using the court system. Tracing out-of-province spouses who ig- ‘nore court orders has also been made simpler. But if main- tenance orders remain low, sim- ple economics may make the program less than attractive to those women now relying on in- come assistance to support their families.

by Charlynn Toews

In announcing the program, Attorney General Brian Smith said the aim of the program was to make sure that court orders are upheld and to place respon- sibility for family maintenance where it belongs: on the separated spouses.

Although the program will be available to anyone seeking to enforce a family court order, particular emphasis has been placed on income assistance re- cipients seeking maintenance. Changes to the (Guaranteed Available Income for Need) Act gives the govern- ment the power to obtain and -enforce maintenance orders on behalf of their clients, and to recover income assistance

GAIN

already paid out from the spouse

if he should have been con- ©

tributing to the maintenance of the family.

While the potential savings to the taxpayer are apparent, what will this program mean to the estimated 10,000 single parents in B.C. receiving income assistance who have main- tenance orders, most of which are in arrears?

Sandra Edelman is the Direc- tor of the Family Maintenance Project, a pilot project assisting income assistance recipients in Vancouver to obtain their court ordered maintenance, Although the project began in April of 1985, only about 400 files have been opened. ‘We had original- ly assumed a lot more people would have participated, around 1000,’? Edelman said. ‘‘Perhaps those who chose not to get in- volved in the program had old court orders but had never seen a cent, and gave up. They may have decided to make do without the payments, and seen trying to obtain them as a waste of time and effort.”? —

In her experience, court ordered awards are low, averag- ing $150 a month for a family of one or two people seeking maintenance in provincial court, although supreme court awards tend to be higher. A.1986 survey of child support awards, while not comprehensive enough to be statistically significant, also shows low monthly awards averaging about $300 a child, even among high income

Speech and hearing — continued trom page 14

aneseaa eee

Adrienne Braid is the itinerant teacher for hearing Impaired children in School District 88. Her work takes her to every corner of the district.

proximately 30 to 40 students about whom Adrienne consults with their normal teacher. With the normal teacher, Adrienne plans a program which can be implemented without removing the student from regular class.

Karen Nash and Adrienne Braid consult together on specific or difficult cases. They use each other as sounding boards. About three times an- nually, they meet with fellow professionals from Kitimat, Prince Rupert, Smithers and Hazelton for support, to discuss new ideas and new equipment. There is no speech pathologist in Prince Rupert. The speech path- ologist in Smithers was brought from Birmingham, England to fill the position.

Speech pathologists in. B.C. are in great demand: last years

12 positions were advertised...

throughout the province. The speech pathology course at UBC services the provinces of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and it takes only 15 students annually for the one- year course. This year only two people will graduate to’ B.C. school districts, hospitals and health centres. In Adrienne’s five years as teacher of the hear- ing impaired in Terrace, she has seen four speech pathologists go through the local position. Karen Nash has been here for two years. © a

Despite the fact that reports must be written and updated and teachers and parents kept in- formed, most of Karen and

. Adrienne’s school time is spent

with the individual students. ‘Our priority is working. with with kids,’’ explains Adrienne.

earners. .

The average maintenance award for one child was $305, for two $586, and for three $826 a month. For a single parent on income assistance with one

child, monthly benefits range —

from $732 to $782, with two $871 to $921, and with three children $973 to $1,023. Assistance with health care costs

and emergencies could add to.

these benefits. And while the ideal of equality makes spousal maintenance less and less com- mon, the reality of many

‘Columbia also focused on the

savings to the taxpayer, not the needs of women and children, in its recommendation: ‘The ob- jective of any maintenance pro-

_gram should be to render un- necessary the provision of social assistance to these individuals by providing legal counsel to act in

proceedings to obtain or enforce maintenance payments.”’ Single parents seeking maintenance will have to know the program is in place and how it works in order to benefit. ‘*The program looks good,”

‘What's. the point of trying to get large awards? They can only keep $100 a month and the spouse is more likely to pay a lower

amount.”

Rob Watts.

mothers’ paid work history, in- terrupted or even completely sacrificed in order to care for children, means their earning potential can be severely limited.

If these welfare moms manage to get even an average order en- forced, they can only keep $100 of it, income assistance taking the rest. Bill Anderson, area manager for the Terrace district

Social Services and Housing, ex- - plained the $100 limit also ap- .

plied to other income such as wages, and was put in place so people could take advantage of some earnings and make the ef- fort to find work while still receiving income assistance. Rob Watts, who until recently assisted single parents seeking maintenance payments, through the Probations office in Terrace, said the $100 limit simply en-

courages income assistance re-

cipients to seek low monthly payments, as they were more likely to be successful. ‘“What’s the point of trying to get large awards? They can only keep $100 a month and the spouse is more likely to pay a lower amount,”’ he commented.

The system currently in place often requires single parents to obtain or enforce maintenance orders, or risk becoming ineligi- ble for income assistance. Yet since the cutbacks to Legal Aid, many of these same people can- not get free legal assistance. Generally speaking, seeking maintenance from a spouse does not constitute urgency and thus won’t be covered by Legal Aid, even though the applicant meets the financial eligibility test. ‘‘It’s crucial to have a lawyer in court with you if the respondent comes to court with one,”’ Watts said. “But in family law, only contested custody is considered urgent enough for Legal Aid.”

‘ ‘With the new system, income.

assistance recipients won’t be re- quired to attend a court case, or even initiate the action, as the government has the power to ob- tain and enforce maintenance. But Social Services may not necessarily be an appropriate ad-

support of a\ family ‘but the

‘political objective of. reducing

the welfare rolls, The 1984

‘- Report of: the. Task Force on

Public Legal Services in British

vocate for a single mom on in- come assistance, if their main motivation is not the adequate -

Susan Milligan from SCRAPS (Society for Children’s Rights to Adequate Parental Support) said from Vancouver. ‘But

parents will! still have to go .

through the paper work, per- haps rely on a lawyer to sign them up. It should be an automatic system like the one in Alberta’ where all maintenance orders are monitored. |

Nancy Zavaglia of Terrace, who has been lobbying for im- proved maintenance, agrees. ‘‘It

still puts the responsibilty on the

parent with custody to worry about maintenance, to be the heavy,’? she said. Zavaglia’s main complaint is in how long it’s taking B.C. to have a pro- gram operational and available to all parts of the province. ‘‘For every day of delay, there are kids doing without. And I’m not talking about piano lesons, I’m talking about the basic necessities of life, like a warm winter coat and bringing a lunch to school every day.”

She also criticized the legal system for encouraging income assistance recipients to settle for low awards, Milligan says judges

stem

are known to give low awardsif

the custodial spouse is on in- ©

come assistance. SCRAPS is. .

bringing forward two resolu- tions to the National Action Committee on the. Status of Women, dealing wiht the issue: @ That the Department of Justice develop child support schedules reflecting the true economic costs of raising children; and '@ That the Department of — Justice start keeping statistics on child support orders. _ The true eceonomic costs. of . raising children has been estimated to be about $600-a month per child, Milligan said. This is almost twice the average .. court order and _ significantly higher than welfare’ s relatively generous benefits. Foster parents in B.C. receive a basic monthly maintenance and clothing allowance of from $256 to $361 per child, plus additional per diem rates ranging from $10 to $30, bringing those payments to between $550 and $1000 a month for children with special needs. Average monthly day - care costs in the lower mainland are about $400 a month, with Terrace averaging $300 — and these child care providers are not buying the child’s clothing, school supplies, and meals that single parents. are expected to find room for in their monthly $300 maintenance budget.

The second resolution is im- portant because single parents should be informed of what they can expect to get, and to demonstrate how low the awards actually are, Milligan said.

With this information available to single parents, however, Social Services may — have to take full advantage of their power to obtain and en- force their clients’ maintenance orders. Simple economics may lead their clients to prefer the relative luxury of welfare.

~ Where

Monday, June 20 — The Terrace Child Development Centre Soclety welcomes your attendance at their an- nual general meeting at 7:30 p.m. at 2510 S. Eby, Ter- race. Individuals seeking nomination as board members must be members in good standing of the Society at least 30 days prior to the annual general meeting date. Memberships can be purchased at the Child Develop-

ment Centre for $2.00.

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