The Penalty for Not Paying Maintenance in Jordan: Enforcement Imprisonment and Its Limits after the 2025 Amendments
Questions about the penalty for not paying maintenance (nafaqa) in Jordan have multiplied since the amendment on debtor imprisonment took effect on June 25, 2025, because many husbands who are behind on maintenance understood that the risk of imprisonment was over, and wives and mothers understood that the judgment they had obtained had lost its force. Both understandings are wrong. Maintenance judgments are not enforced under Article 22 of Enforcement Law No. 25 of 2007, as amended by Law No. 9 of 2022, but under Sharia Enforcement Law No. 10 of 2013, which permits imprisonment for maintenance debt on terms that differ from ordinary debt and makes the timing of submitting the judgment for enforcement a factor that changes the position of the whole file. That is why a review of the maintenance file by a lawyer who specializes in Sharia cases and Sharia enforcement, before any step or any refusal to pay, is what determines what each party actually holds.
1. What People Call a "Penalty" Is Essentially Enforcement Imprisonment
The imprisonment faced by a person who refuses to pay adjudged maintenance in Jordan is a means of compelling payment ordered by the Sharia Head of Enforcement, the Sharia judge charged with enforcement at the Sharia Court of First Instance. It is not a criminal penalty imposed by a criminal judge after a trial, as the common phrase "the penalty for not paying maintenance" suggests. Article 5 of the Sharia Enforcement Law gives the Head of Enforcement jurisdiction over all enforcement disputes, including attaching and selling the judgment debtor's property, imprisoning the judgment debtor, and banning the judgment debtor from travel unless a guarantor is provided who secures payment of the adjudged amount.
The distinction has a direct practical effect: enforcement imprisonment does not extinguish the debt, so the imprisoned person leaves with the amount still owed, and the file stays open with all its other means. The criminal route stands on its own in specific cases, set out in Section 7 of this article, and its elements differ from a mere delay in paying an adjudged amount.
2. Why the 2025 Amendment Did Not Cover Maintenance Debt
Amending Law No. 9 of 2022 restricted debtor imprisonment where the source of the debt is a contractual obligation, with an exception for obligations arising from employment contracts and lease agreements. Maintenance does not arise from a contract negotiated by two parties; Personal Status Law No. 15 of 2019 imposes it on the husband and the father, and the Sharia Court issues a judgment for it. Sharia enforcement cases therefore remained outside the restriction introduced by the amendment, and adjudged maintenance debt remained among the cases in which imprisonment may be requested without the need to prove the debtor's ability to pay, with each installment treated as a separate debt.
In addition, the Sharia Enforcement Law itself provides in Article 13(a) that imprisonment may be requested "in all debts, including the dower (mahr)," and Article 19 provides that no provision in any other law that conflicts with its provisions is to be applied. What actually changed for civil debts after the amendment, and which obligations remained outside the restriction, is set out in the article on debtor imprisonment in the Jordanian Enforcement Law.
3. Enforcing Maintenance Debt Compared with Ordinary Contractual Debt
| Point of comparison | Adjudged maintenance debt | Ordinary contractual debt |
|---|---|---|
| Governing law | Sharia Enforcement Law No. 10 of 2013, Article 13 | Enforcement Law No. 25 of 2007, Article 22 as amended by Law No. 9 of 2022 |
| Competent authority | The Sharia Head of Enforcement at the Sharia Court of First Instance (Articles 2 and 5) | The Head of Enforcement at the Enforcement Department of the regular courts |
| Whether the debtor may be imprisoned | Yes; imprisonment is permitted in all debts, including the dower (Article 13(a)) | No, as a rule, since June 25, 2025, except for obligations arising from employment contracts and lease agreements |
| Proof of the debtor's ability to pay | Not required if the instrument is submitted for enforcement within the period set by Article 13(d); once that period has passed, the accumulated amount falls under the general rule, which opens the door to a settlement and an examination of means | Where imprisonment remains permitted, the creditor is required to prove the debtor's financial means, and the debtor may offer a settlement |
| Installments | Each installment is a separate debt for which imprisonment may be requested without proof of ability to pay (Article 13(b)) | A contractual debt does not lead to imprisonment as long as it falls outside the exceptions |
| Priority when distributing enforcement proceeds | Maintenance comes first, and within it spousal maintenance, child support and the housing allowance take precedence (Article 16(a)) | Other debts rank equally with one another, after maintenance (Article 16(b)) |
| Effect of imprisonment on the debt | It does not extinguish it; imprisonment is a means of compulsion, not payment | The debt remains in place, and other enforcement means such as attachment and travel bans continue |
What settles each party's position in a given file is the type of debt, when the instrument was submitted for enforcement, and what the imprisonment is being requested for: a recent installment or old accumulated arrears.
4. Timing Is the Point That Turns the File Around
The most delicate part of Article 13 of the Sharia Enforcement Law is its paragraph (d). It allows the judgment creditor to request the imprisonment of the judgment debtor for maintenance and fee debts without the need to prove the debtor's ability to pay, provided that the enforceable instrument is submitted for enforcement within a specified period from the date it was issued. If it is submitted after that period has passed, the accumulated maintenance debt falls under paragraph (a), that is, the general rule that allows the judgment debtor to offer a settlement proportionate to his financial means after paying part of the amount, and that empowers the Head of Enforcement, in case of disagreement, to hear both parties and verify the judgment debtor's ability to pay.
For the wife or the custodial mother, this means that a delay in submitting the judgment, even with the intention of giving the husband a chance, may move the accumulated amount from a regime in which the refusing party is imprisoned without any inquiry into his means to a regime that opens the door to settlement and payment in installments. For the husband, it means that his position in the file is determined by the date of the judgment, the date it was submitted and the nature of the amount claimed, not by the size of the debt alone. Determining which regime governs the accumulated amount in a particular file, and which installments fall under each paragraph, is itself a legal point that merits consultation, and it cannot be drawn from the text of the article without reviewing the file's documents.
Practical note: Much of what circulates about "the abolition of debtor imprisonment" confuses the Enforcement Law with the Sharia Enforcement Law and does not distinguish between a recent installment and old accumulated arrears. When assessing a maintenance file, the lawyer goes back to the text of Article 13 of the Sharia Enforcement Law and to the date of the enforceable instrument and the date it was submitted, not to news headlines, and this is a matter settled by reviewing the file or consulting a specialist lawyer before relying on it.
5. What the Lawyer Examines in the File of a Husband Facing a Maintenance Claim
A husband facing a request for imprisonment over maintenance is not without a defense, but the room to move is narrower than most of those pursued expect, and it depends on the stage the file has reached. Among the matters the husband's lawyer examines:
- The regime that governs the amount claimed: whether it falls under the case in which the debtor is imprisoned without proof of ability to pay, or under the general rule that allows a settlement proportionate to his financial means to be offered.
- The categories that may not be imprisoned: Article 14 of the Sharia Enforcement Law excludes specific categories, including employees of ministries, departments and official and public institutions who receive a monthly salary, a person who is not personally liable for the debt, and a pregnant woman and the mother of a newborn who has custody of the child during the period set by the text. Enforcement continues against a person excluded from imprisonment through the other means.
- The cap on the length of imprisonment: the law sets an annual limit on the length of imprisonment for a single debt and an overall limit however many debts there are, and the burden of proving how these periods are calculated falls on the judgment debtor (Article 13(c)).
- Health condition: the Head of Enforcement may postpone imprisonment if satisfied, on the basis of a medical report from a specialist physician at an official body, that the judgment debtor has an illness that makes imprisonment unbearable (Article 13(e)).
- Challenging the imprisonment decision: decisions of the Head of Enforcement may be appealed before the competent Sharia Court of Appeal, and appealing an imprisonment decision carries conditions relating to a guarantee that the lawyer assesses (Article 9).
- Changing the amount of maintenance or the lapse of its grounds: this is a separate case before the Sharia Court that refusing to pay cannot replace, and its grounds are detailed in the article when spousal maintenance lapses in Jordan
Do not stop paying adjudged maintenance on the strength of a news report about the abolition of imprisonment, or before a judgment is issued that changes it, because every installment left unpaid becomes a separate debt for which imprisonment may be requested.
6. When Collection Is Impossible: The Maintenance Advance Fund
Not every maintenance file is a problem of a husband who can pay and refuses. In some, no property can be found for the judgment debtor, or he is absent, and the judgment has no effect on the life of the wife and the children. For this situation, Article 321 of Personal Status Law No. 15 of 2019 established at the Supreme Judge Department the Maintenance Advance Fund, whose purpose is to advance adjudged maintenance to the judgment creditor who has been unable to collect it.
For this, the Maintenance Advance Fund Regulation of 2015 requires an enforceable instrument, that the judgment creditor or the judgment debtor be Jordanian, and that the maintenance cannot be collected from the judgment debtor, with that impossibility established by the enforcement officer's notes. The fund assesses how much it advances, all or part of it, according to its own financial circumstances and those of the two parties.
The aspect the husband overlooks is that an advance from the fund does not discharge him. Article 321(b) makes the fund stand in the place of the judgment creditor in his or her financial rights in order to collect what it advanced, together with expenses, and gives it the right to bring cases to recover its money from the judgment debtor. For the wife, acceptance of an advance request depends on a sound enforcement file in which the enforcement officer has recorded that collection was impossible, which means that pursuing enforcement properly is a condition for reaching the fund itself.
7. When Refusing to Provide Maintenance Becomes a Crime
As a rule, non-payment of adjudged maintenance is dealt with through Sharia enforcement. However, Penal Code No. 16 of 1960 criminalizes, in Article 290, specific forms of leaving children without support, punishing with imprisonment from three months to one year any parent, guardian or tutor of a minor who has not completed fifteen years of age, or of a person with a disability whatever his age, or anyone entrusted under Sharia or the law with his care and protection, if he:
- refused or neglected to provide him with food, clothing, bedding and other necessities while able to do so, thereby harming his health; or
- abandoned him intentionally or without a legitimate or reasonable cause, although able to support him, and left him without means of support.
The penalty is imprisonment from six months to two years if the minor has not completed twelve years of age.
This provision does not make every delay in paying maintenance a crime. It protects the child and the person with a disability, not the wife; it requires the ability to provide support; and it requires either harm to the child's health or leaving the child without means of support. The line between an enforcement file handled before the Sharia Head of Enforcement and a set of facts that meets the elements of Article 290 is a fine one that the lawyer assesses from the facts, whether representing the mother who is considering a complaint or the father who faces one.
8. Frequently Asked Questions
Is a husband imprisoned in Jordan if he does not pay maintenance?
Yes, that is permitted. Sharia Enforcement Law No. 10 of 2013 allows the imprisonment of the judgment debtor to be requested for maintenance debt, and treats each installment as a separate debt for which imprisonment may be requested without proof of his ability to pay. However, the conditions of imprisonment differ according to the timing of submitting the instrument for enforcement and the nature of the amount claimed, and the law excludes certain categories from imprisonment.
Did the 2025 amendment to the Enforcement Law abolish imprisonment in maintenance cases?
No. The amendment that took effect on June 25, 2025, under Law No. 9 of 2022 restricted debtor imprisonment for contractual obligations. Maintenance is an obligation imposed by law, and it is enforced under the Sharia Enforcement Law, which permits imprisonment for it.
Is the maintenance debt extinguished if the husband is imprisoned?
No. Imprisonment is a means of compelling the debtor to pay, not payment, so the amount remains owed after the imprisonment ends, the other enforcement means remain available, and imprisonment may still be requested for later installments.
Is a government employee imprisoned over maintenance?
Article 14 of the Sharia Enforcement Law prohibits the imprisonment of employees of ministries, departments and official and public institutions who receive a monthly salary. That does not mean the file is closed; enforcement turns to the other means provided for against the judgment debtor's property.
Can the husband be banned from travel over maintenance?
Yes. Article 5 of the Sharia Enforcement Law places a travel ban on the judgment debtor within the jurisdiction of the Head of Enforcement, unless he provides a guarantor who secures payment of the adjudged amount.
What is the solution if the husband has no property to enforce against?
Article 321 of the Personal Status Law established the Maintenance Advance Fund for this situation; it advances adjudged maintenance to a person who has been unable to collect it, on conditions set by the fund's regulation, and then stands in that person's place in claiming against the judgment debtor.
Is failing to support one's children a crime?
It may be, if the elements of Article 290 of the Penal Code are met: a minor who has not completed fifteen years of age or a person with a disability, the ability to provide support, and a refusal or neglect that harmed his health or leaving him without means of support. The penalty is imprisonment from three months to one year, and from six months to two years if the minor has not completed twelve years of age.
Legal Consultation
Maintenance enforcement files are sensitive on both sides: for the wife or the custodial mother, a delay in submitting the judgment or a mistake in classifying the amount claimed may cost her the strongest means the law gave her to collect a daily right that cannot wait; for the husband, relying on a news report about the abolition of imprisonment may turn into accumulated installments, for each of which imprisonment may be requested separately. Because each party's position is determined by the date of the judgment, the date it was submitted and the nature of the debt, reviewing the file before any step is what preserves the right or limits the harm. For a specialist legal consultation in maintenance and Sharia cases, or to read the rules on spousal maintenance under Jordanian law and child support in Jordan, you can contact Alabwini Law Firm & Legal Consultancy.
