Children not better off when delinquent father jailed- Doug Wheatley
The alleged matter was brought to the public by the host of the 3D Show on 780 AM ZBVI, Doug Wheatley, on Friday January 27, 2017.
According to Mr Wheatley, a gentleman approached him a few days ago with tears in his eyes speaking on the “unfairness of how the government was dealing with persons whose fathers were delinquent in their child support”.
“I spoke about this last week when a lady approached me about it with tears in her eyes as well, but this week it was a gentleman, and basically this is what he said, he has a relative who is delinquent and he is delinquent in the tune of several thousand dollars and he was working. And he was picked up from his work and he was taken to court and from court, he was sent up to Balsam Ghut [Her Majesty’s Prison].”
Children not better off
The programme host argued that the children are not better off because of this.
“Now he was taken from working, and he is put in a place where he is not working and making an income,” he argued, “and of course this child is no better off today than he was yesterday.”
He continued, “But the father on his own volition decided, well, I would have to help this relative of mine and so he put together about $2,500 to see if he could pay…and if that would help the situation and the relative could be released and he could work and make money and get back up to speed on the remainder. And when he offered to pay this 2,500 the powers that be told him it is all or nothing.”
Sad situation
“This was very sad for the gentleman and he came to me and he expressed this: Why not accept the 2,500 that I am giving you? Release the young man, allow him to get a job, and we will monitor him and see that he comes up with the other $2,500 or whatever the balance is, but in fact, according to this individual, they were turned down.”
“That was not a good thing,” Wheatley surmised.
The situation of jailing delinquent fathers has been a hot topic of debate in several quarters. Family Support Network (FSN) Director Dr Sylvia M. Simmonds believes that there should be a system where these fathers’ paychecks are monitored, with their child maintenance coming out before he receives pay. She has pointed out in the past that this is one of the suggestions that could actually work.
Virgin Islands News Online sought out two other men to find out just what they thought of the dilemma.
The men preferred to remain unknown since they said they did not want the story to be about them but rather on the situation at hand.
Not in support of jail time
“Honestly speaking, I don’t believe in jailing a man for child support, because you lock him up, he still has to pay the child support anyway. But if somebody made a collective effort, they should give the man a chance, let him come out and do what he got to do,” the first man we interviewed said.
Give him a work release to pay back
“If he is in jail, give him a work release, let him come out and work when he make the money, let him come out of jail.”
He said in his opinion many men wilfully neglect their children because of one reason or the other, including not having sexual intercourse with the mother anymore.
“You have children, you have responsibilities, deal with your responsibilities.”
Interviewee number two said there has to be a valid reason behind men was defaulting in payments in the first place.
“Sometimes men just fall short, but some women just end up spending your money and doing nonsense and forget about the children. There has to be a reason behind that, either he thinks the child is not his or the woman did him wrong, but at the end of the day, you are hurting the child than you are hurting the mother.”
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16 Responses to “Children not better off when delinquent father jailed- Doug Wheatley”
I don't bother him anymore for anything. One day the son that he refuse to support is going to be the one that the father is going to call to on for something.