The silent suffering of custodial parents deepens — not because there are no laws but because the laws related to child support are toothless in practice. It bears repeating that unpaid child support is not only a private, personal issue, but it is also a public and structural failure that must be addressed.

In response to questions asked in the Senate in March 2024, the Reverend Emily Gail Dill, the former senator and junior minister, and now Member of Parliament, confirmed that between 2019 and 2023 there was one enforcement officer assigned to manage 2,745 delinquent child support cases. About $16.65 million was collected during that five-year period.

Dr Dill said she was unable confirm the total amount owed to custodial parents because the courts use a 30-year-old system that is no longer supported, so it could not produce reliable reports on how much child support remains unpaid.

If that is not concerning enough, the processes are so outdated that court staff rely on manual checks and incomplete records, so it is unsurprising that some parents have given up after years of trying to collect child maintenance payments through the courts. At present, there is still only one enforcement officer handling default cases.

The backlogs experienced by custodial parents is not accidental; it is largely neglect in administrative planning. While custodial parents face child maintenance arrears that push some of them to the edge of financial collapse, enforcement remains underfunded and bureaucratic.

In practice, this has meant that some custodial parents are having to borrow funds to take care of their children, to apply for financial assistance, or take on additional jobs — all while the defaulting parent remains largely unpressured to fulfil their obligations.

Previous proposals made to address this unacceptable reality included automatic wage garnishments, liens on vehicles or property, travel restrictions for repeat offenders and portable court garnishments linked to social insurance numbers. None of these ideas are new or radical; they are standard in other countries.

Some custodial parents are having to choose between groceries and electricity while waiting years for court-ordered payments to be enforced, if ever. Children in some of these households face higher risk of poverty, interrupted education and psychological trauma; all the while inaction signals that parental responsibility is optional. As child support arrears rise, public welfare costs increase, thus multiplying the social consequences of inaction.

Our children must be adequately cared for in every aspect, so protecting them must be a priority. The Government must consider:

• Urgently increasing staff in the child support enforcement office to handle caseloads effectively

• Prioritising the digitisation of child maintenance collection data and processes

• Introducing statutory penalties for non-payment that escalates with duration of non-payment

• Publicly reporting annual child support arrears data and collection rates for transparency

These measures go beyond rhetoric; they represent accountability in action.

Bermuda must stop treating unpaid child support as a private grievance. It is a national failure that erodes faith in the justice system, harms children’s futures and leaves custodial parents carrying the financial burden of raising children alone. Financial support for children is a basic responsibility; it should not be treated like an optional expense.

• Robin Tucker is the Shadow Minister of Health and the MP for Hamilton South (Constituency 7)