Can I stop my previous employer from attaching my provident fund to pay maintenance?

The long answer

Do you have a maintenance court order that your previous employer was deducting money from your salary for?

If you do, Lawful Living says that you must let the maintenance officer at your local Magistrate’s Court know that you have left your previous job within seven days of leaving it. It is an offence not to notify the court. You must also give the court the name and address of your new employer.

DCM Corporate says that a maintenance order can’t be “transferred” to a new employer. Once the maintenance officer has been told that you’ve got a new job, the court will notify your old employer to stop deducting maintenance payments, and it will issue a new maintenance order to your new employer saying how much must be deducted from your pay. A sheriff of the court will serve the new order on your new employer. 

Because changing your job can cause a temporary delay in processing payments, Lawful Living recommends that you pay your child’s mother directly in this gap time so that you don’t fall into arrears.

Moving on to whether your provident fund can be attached to pay maintenance:

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr in a 2026 article said that an employer cannot withhold a benefit for standard maintenance: they can request that the fund legally withhold the payout only if they have a law case coming up against you or a court judgment against you for theft, fraud, or dishonesty. 

Section 26(4) of the Maintenance Act, read together with Section 37D(1) of the Pension Funds Act, makes it clear that a court does have the power to attach a pension benefit for the arrear (past) maintenance of a child, if the fund has received a final maintenance order that is binding on the fund. 

The Durban court in Mngadi v Beacon Sweets and Chocolates Provident Fund (2004) established that South African courts have a legal obligation to also enforce orders that deal with the future maintenance of a child. The court said that in dealing with the future maintenance of a child, it must be shown that a defaulting member has a history of failing to take his maintenance responsibilities seriously. The High Court ordered the fund to retain the pension benefit due to the father of two minor children and to use the benefit to pay maintenance monthly to their mother until they no longer require support and maintenance. Thereafter, the balance of the benefit (if any) should be paid to the father or his estate.

Professor Clement Marumoagae of Wits University, who is a very well-known expert on pension law, says that before a court can order that a parent’s provident fund should be attached, the court must be satisfied that the parent has no other way of paying child maintenance. Attaching a pension is a last resort: it can only be ordered when a parent who has a maintenance order has defaulted in their payments, and there is no other way of paying except through the provident or pension fund. 

So, in your case, attaching the provident fund would be necessary if you were in arrears and had no other means to continue paying maintenance. But as you are employed in a new job, there would be no reason to attach the provident fund, as long as you are not in arrears with maintenance payments.

If your child’s mother brought an application to the maintenance court to attach your provident fund, you would have to appear in the maintenance court and show that you can continue paying the maintenance without the court needing to attach your provident fund. 

Perhaps you should ask for advice from Legal Aid, which is a means-tested organisation that must help people who can’t afford a lawyer. These are their contact details:

• Legal Aid

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 0800 110 110 (Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm) 
Please Call Me: 079 835 7179 

Wishing you the best,
Athalie