For Madam Mary Loh (not her real name), getting her former husband to pay $150 in maintenance fees each month was so frustrating that she gave up pressing him for payment more than three years ago.

Repeated mediation sessions and four court sessions at the Family Court also bore no fruit, as her former husband would always claim that he had no money.

The 69-year-old - who worked as a part-time maid - could not afford to engage a lawyer. When she fell at work in 2009, she had to stop working and incurred medical bills of about $500 each month. She became desperate.

"I could rely only on my savings and on whatever money my three children could give me... I was angry that I was not getting my rightful dues," Madam Loh said in Mandarin.

But she found hope again in late June, after learning that DP SME Commercial Credit Bureau has been tasked by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to track spousal- and child-maintenance debts.

Individuals can approach the bureau to record the failure to pay maintenance arrears on their former spouses' credit report. This information is then made available to more than 700 of the bureau's members - including banks, other credit providers and retailers - thus affecting a defaulter's ability to secure loans as well as his future employment prospects.

Of the 24 maintenance-default cases lodged with the bureau since the initiative was rolled out three months ago, six women have successfully got their errant former spouses to pay up. Among them is Madam Loh, whose former husband has made a lump- sum payment of $5,000 for past maintenance dues.

Another 10 cases are in the mediation stage, with the bureau having tracked down the errant spouses to try and resolve the debts, at least in part.

Said Ms Ong Siew Kim, senior general manager of DP: "The success rate has been very encouraging, with the complainants happy and their former spouses satisfied. But we believe there are a lot more women out there who need such help, and we want them to come forward."

One woman who approached the bureau recently is Madam Kalson, 50, whose former husband has not paid her monthly $200 maintenance fees for the last five months. "He refuses to pick up my calls, says he has no money, doesn't turn up in court," she said. "I think the bureau will be more effective in dealing with him."

Method only effective for those who use credit facilities

About 3,400 women apply for court orders each year to obtain maintenance payments by their former spouses. The figures have remained similar for the past four years.

25 per cent of cases have been resolved since the government initiative was introduced on June 1, reported The Straits Times (ST).

However, ST also reported that this method will only work 'in cases where the family finances are healthier, and where you would expect that the paying party would have credit cards and other credit facilities'.

45-year-old Mrs Janet Tan has failed to received maintenance payments from her ex-husband for six years because he is a bankrupt, and added that using the bureau's service is a 'longer-term way of getting back your money' and is not a solution for her as she needs money immediately for her children

The Singapore Council of Women's Organisations has launched Maintenance Support Central, a dedicated centre at Waterloo Street, to help provide legal advice and counselling for women who have issues obtaining maintenance payments from their former spouses.

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Additional reporting by: [email protected]