Many single mothers refrain from giving the name of the father of the child because it is such a hassle to collect child maintenance from an individual. The maintenance payments are quite often erratic and the mother has to resort to the Law Courts to receive the allowance.

What I suggest is that instead of the money being paid to the mother, it is paid to the government. The government would then pay the maintenance to the mother irrespective of how much the father pays in child allowance to the government.

If the mother were assured of a regular income she would be much more disposed to name the father – the father who was man enough to impregnate but not man enough to marry her.

Such a system would hold back men from cheating on females by first getting them pregnant and then leaving them.

Josephine Gatt-Ciancio

KALKARA