The Maintenance Act places a duty on children to maintain their parents if they cannot afford to support themselves.

A woman who lives in St. Ann has complained that her mother has six children, but four of them have refused to give any money to help to take care of their mother.

"My mother suffered a stroke three years ago and is paralysed on the left side and so I took her to my house to take care of her because she was living alone, " the woman said.

"I am the last child for my mother and there are six of us but only one of my brothers gives me money on a monthly basis to assist with her financial needs. The others have refused to assist her financially although they are all working.

"It is very expensive to take care of my mother and I even have to employ someone to help me to take care of her. When I tell my other siblings how expensive it is to take care of my mother they tell me they have their families to take care of. My mother worked hard to give us all a good education and take care of us. I find it very difficult to understand how her other four children who also live in St. Ann can be so callous to their mother," she said.

You could apply to the Clerk of the Court in your parish for a summons to have your other siblings taken before the Resident Magistrate's Court in relation to their refusal to maintain their mother. The Resident Magistrate will make enquiries and if satisfied that they can afford to contribute to the maintenance of their mother will make the appropriate order as to how much they must pay.

Section 4 of the Maintenance Act states in part that every person is hereby required to maintain his or her father and mother, grandfathers and grandmothers." If they are unable to maintain themselves.