Guide · Family · 3 min read
Children: custody and maintenance
A parent’s duty to maintain a child, how the court orders maintenance, and how custody is decided.
In plain English · by laws.sg · not legal advice· Law as at 30 Sep 2026
On this page · 5 parts
The short answer
Except where an agreement or a court order provides otherwise, a parent has a duty to maintain or contribute to the maintenance of their children, whether the children are in their custody or someone else's.
In deciding in whose custody, or in whose care and control, a child should be placed, the court treats the welfare of the child as the paramount consideration.
A parent's duty to maintain
Except where an agreement or order of court otherwise provides, a parent must maintain or contribute to the maintenance of their children, whether legitimate or illegitimate, by providing the accommodation, clothing, food and education that is reasonable for the parent's means and station in life, or by paying the cost of them.
Asking the court for maintenance
On due proof that a parent has neglected or refused to provide reasonable maintenance for a child who is unable to maintain themself, the court may order that parent to pay monthly sums or a lump sum for the child's maintenance.
The application can be made by:
- A guardian of the child, or a person who has actual custody of the child
- The child, if the child is 21 or older
- A sibling of the child who is 21 or older, if the child is under 21
- A person appointed by the Minister
In deciding the maintenance, the court has regard to all the circumstances, including the child's financial needs, income, earning capacity, property and other financial resources, any physical or mental disability, and the standard of living the child enjoyed before the parent neglected or refused to maintain them.
During matrimonial proceedings, or when or after a judgment of divorce, judicial separation or nullity is granted, the court may order a parent to pay maintenance for the benefit of their child in the manner it thinks fit.
Custody, care and control
The court may at any time place a child in the custody, or the care and control, of the child's father or mother. Where exceptional circumstances make it undesirable to entrust the child to either parent, it may place the child with another relative, a child welfare organisation or another suitable person.
In deciding in whose custody or care and control a child should be placed, the welfare of the child is the paramount consideration. Subject to that, the court has regard to the wishes of the parents, and to the wishes of the child where the child is of an age to express an independent opinion.
An order for custody may provide for the child to visit a parent who has been deprived of custody, give that parent a right of access at reasonable times, and prohibit the person given custody from taking the child out of Singapore.
While an order for custody or for care and control is in force, no one may take the child out of Singapore without the written consent of both parents or the court's permission, except as the section allows for a short period.
Outside divorce proceedings
Either parent, or a guardian appointed under the Guardianship of Infants Act, can apply to the court for orders on the custody of a child, the right of access to the child, and payments towards the child's maintenance.
Guardianship of Infants Act s 5
Where the custody or upbringing of a child is in question in those proceedings, the court regards the welfare of the child as the first and paramount consideration. Except so far as that welfare requires otherwise, neither the father nor the mother is taken to have a right or claim superior to the other's.
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