{
  "id": 406446,
  "title": "Maintenance payments disrupted by ‘system glitch’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/09/maintenance-payments-disrupted-by-system-glitch",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-09T19:20:30.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "SABC News",
    "slug": "sabc-news",
    "url": "https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/maintenance-payments-disrupted-by-system-glitch/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Maintenance payments to thousands of women receiving child support through the Justice Department's garnishee order system are disrupted by a system glitch. Mothers, who have not received their payments since last month, have been informed of the issue, but the Department has yet to provide a statement explaining the non-payments. Felicity Guest, founder of Child Maintenance Difficulties South Africa, reports that the guardian fund payments are also affected. The Department detected suspicious activities and froze the payment system, leaving many mothers without financial support. The exact nature of the suspicious activities remains unclear, with possibilities ranging from a cyber-hack to an internal issue.",
  "summary": "Felicity Guest says frozen child support payments are a result of suspicious activity",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}