Please Help!!!Husband moved money out of our joint account

needawayout_2

danio01 wrote: »

Hi. We have been married for 6 years and have 2 young children. My husband works full-time and I am a stay at home mum. Now the marriage is in a serious crisis (not related to finances) and my husband opened a separate account and decided that his whole salary will be paid into that account. Is it legal? If so, What are legal ways of making sure he pays into the joint account enough money to cover the household expenditures? He says he will cover all the outstading orders (morgage, insurance, etc.) out of his account and give me some unspecified amount for food and other every day expenditures.
His actions have not been provoked by any irresponsible spending on my side.
In the last 6 years I have not spent more than £40 without his consent and have not run any debts.

I would be very suspicious(and financially unable to cope) if my husband did this I'm also a SAHM, through a joint decision we made together. I have sacrificed my career(for the time being) in order to be at home with the kids, so therefore his is the sole income. Any money that comes in is our money...

I do hope that he is giving you money to live on, as you have kids to support. I think he's being a bit selfish. (((((hugs to you))))) Sounds like you are going through a bit of heartache, I hope things improve soon.

tsstss7

wannabe_sybil wrote: »

I would like to say to those who are criticising the OP for complaining that the husband is covering the bills...

He has said he will cover the bills. This is not necessarily going to happen. There is no reason to believe that he will not. However I am sure we have all read plenty of pie crust promises on the boards. The OP sounded frantic for fear that he may not. The OP was concerned about what would happen if he did not cover the bills.

I do not think that the husband should be stripped of all his money. I agree that he has worked for the money so he should be able to decide what to do with it. In a healthy marriage it is not a problem. The ideal would be for the OP to find employment, but that may be harder than it seems.

Also, this is not hinted at by OP but there is a recognised form of domestic abuse where a wife is not allowed access to any money as a way of controlling her. It is possible to register child allowance (no family allowance these days) to the father and not the mother - I do not receive it, my dear heart does.

Also, I am totally against a hard working man being stripped of all his money while an ex lives in luxury. It just doesn't seem from what the OP says that it the case here.

Do you mean child benefit? If so this should be paid to the partner who is at home with the kids as it covers your NI contributions towards certain state benefits and I think it helps pay towards your pension (but I'm no expert on pensions). This is very important really as otherwise a SAHP will have years of unpaid NI contributions and in the future could seriously damage entitlements.

skintchick

I find it intriguing that people think having wages paid into a sole account is, in general, a bad thing. Both my Oh and I do this, then we pay into the joint account an agreed amount for joint bills. When I stop work in April, he will increase his amount, and also pay me some money for my stuff (piano lessons, yoga, etc) but I wouldn;t expect him not to have his wages paid into his own account.

however, the OP is in a different situation as her husband is clearly preparing to leave and be difficult.

Firstly, he has said he will cover the bills but we should only assume that will happen while he is still lving there.

Obviously they need to try and sort their issues out one way or another, but in the meantime I think that if he is not providing sufficient money for household expenses, that the OP should not cook or clean for him at all, and tell him she cannot afford to do so.

I hope he is not the kind of man who would abandon his children and not pay for them, but if he is, then there is help availble to the OP and hopefully she will be able to get more good advice on here from people who know such things (not me).

bryanb

Some people seem to have lost sight of the fact that OP asked about the legal position, not about how folks think things should be.

*Chattie*

wannabe_sybil wrote: »

I would like to say to those who are criticising the OP for complaining that the husband is covering the bills...

He has said he will cover the bills. This is not necessarily going to happen. There is no reason to believe that he will not. However I am sure we have all read plenty of pie crust promises on the boards. The OP sounded frantic for fear that he may not. The OP was concerned about what would happen if he did not cover the bills.

I do not think that the husband should be stripped of all his money. I agree that he has worked for the money so he should be able to decide what to do with it. In a healthy marriage it is not a problem. The ideal would be for the OP to find employment, but that may be harder than it seems.

Also, this is not hinted at by OP but there is a recognised form of domestic abuse where a wife is not allowed access to any money as a way of controlling her. It is possible to register child allowance (no family allowance these days) to the father and not the mother - I do not receive it, my dear heart does.

Also, I am totally against a hard working man being stripped of all his money while an ex lives in luxury. It just doesn't seem from what the OP says that it the case here.

Why on earth would the father receive the CB and/or child tax credits when the mother is the one staying at home to look after the children? Sounds to me to be very controlling and have I not read elsewhere that your own dear heart refuses to buy paint or a carpet so you can get your house sold.

Certainly the OP needs to make sure that at least the children's money such as CB comes to her and get her own account set up for that so its not going into a joint account.

Spendless

My friend's husband did this to her and when she queried if she could claim IS she couldn't cos her husband still lived at her address (whether she was given correct advice I couldn't say). She consulted a solicitor and though I can't remember exactly what happened, the solicitor wrote to her husband basically saying that their marriage had ended and friend's husband moved out shortly afterwards.

My friend had an avon round at the time and discovered (Once her hubby had moved out) if she upped the area she covered and make the avon round average out at at least 16 hours per week she could claim tax credits which she did.

OP- I'd seek advice with CAB or legally.

Merry_Gentry

Spendless wrote: »

My friend's husband did this to her and when she queried if she could claim IS she couldn't cos her husband still lived at her address (whether she was given correct advice I couldn't say). She consulted a solicitor and though I can't remember exactly what happened, the solicitor wrote to her husband basically saying that their marriage had ended and friend's husband moved out shortly afterwards.

In order to claim various benefits, you would need to prove that you and the OH were living completely separate lives. When it happened to me, I wasn't sure, but I spoke to Housing Benefits, and they said they were seeing it more and more often with people splitting up but not able to move out of the 'joint' home. As long as they were living completely separate lives - cooking, cleaning, sleeping, etc - and could prove that if a 'home visit' happened, then the claim could be made.

In the OP's case, it would mean she would have money of her own for housekeeping, her share of bills, etc which would probably make her feel much more secure. Yes, it would be great if she could get a job straight away and start earning for herself, but it's not always as simple as that.

glossgal

She didn't say he'd moved it into his account just decided not to put it in the joint one anymore which is not illegal by any stretch of the imagination. OP is obviously right to be concerned and start making back up plans but some of the posts/reactions here are so over the top!

leiela

Mutter wrote: »

The OP stated that husband had moved money from joint account into his own.
As I said in previous post according to CAB this not allowed.
Marriage



If a married couple has a joint bank account, the money is owned jointly regardless of who put it into the account.

"Regardless of who put it in to the account"
So he was not entitled to move it in to own account but share it equally.

From my understanding , as long as you are living together and married, although he can have his money go into a seperate account, as his wife you share his finances, so even though it's gonig into a seperate account it is still half yours.

Your a housewife, thats a decision you BOTH made, money coming into the household is BOTH of yours you both work for it, albit in different ways. If you where to split you could demand 50% of everything, more tbh if you kept the children with you.

I know the husband of a friend of mine did a similar thing it was his intention to "set up" himself elsewhere, by keeping some money aside for himself (5 had a secret account for 5 years!!!! talk about planning) however when the split actually came the courts made him give her half of it, as the money was earned during the marriage.

glossgal

Mutter wrote: »

Please Help!!!Husband moved money out of our joint account

Perhaps she did'nt mean it quite as literally as I read it.

LOL fair point (but when is a title just a title?!?)