Friend's divorce advice needed

troll35

A very good friend from university is unfortunately getting divorced for the second time. He earns around £40K and currently gives £700 to his first wife in maintenance for his two children (aged 13 & 11). His first wife also got all the equity (40K) in their house (sold when she moved in with current husband).

My friend can't afford to pay his second wife £350 per month for their child (aged 4) and keep up the mortgage payments (£500 pm) on their house (soon to be ex doesn't work) and support himself elsewhere. She is fully aware of how much he pays to his first wife and wants at least the same.

Does anybody know approx how much he should be paying in maintenance, given his earnings or give advise as to who could help him (I've no idea on this score at all)

bluezone

you could maybe enquire with the Child Support Agency? just a thought.

Becles

troll35 wrote:

She is fully aware of how much he pays to his first wife and wants at least the same.

But there is only 1 child compared to the first wife who has 2 children

Have a look on the CSA website and there are calulators which tell you how much you should be paying.

If your friend can keep it amicable by showing what the CSA calculator says and paying accordingly, it's better for all than getting solicitors and CSA involed.

rick27

Sorry this doesnt answer your question just my quick thoughts on this!
I would have thought that about £400 max should be about right,nothing to do AFAIK with his previous marriage payout,since his net income is now lower.

Illustrates the points,


1)Never get married without a prenuptial(makes no difference here though) and
2)never get hitched just because all others your age have and
3)never get hitched or even further have children without being reasonably sure that it will be a long term stable relationship!

Ystrad_Lad

The CSA rules say that he should pay 25% of net income for three children. Net income means after tax and pension contributions. Check the CSA website for adjustments to this, such as shared care etc.

Try and get agreement without involving the CSA because with two ex-wives the CSA computer not be able to sort it out correctly and it will go to their manual desk, which means months of delay.

If soon-to-be ex No:2 claims Income Support she will be forced to go to the CSA. In that situation the CSA will not take into account any payment to ex No:1, as it is voluntary, and he will forced to pay 15% to ex No:2.

Both ex's need to claim via the CSA for them to consider all three children (or your friend can make an application if ex No:1 won't).

My advice is, if the CSA is brought in, make sure claims are submitted at the same time otherwise they will not get the calculations right.

Advise your friend to get a GOOD divorce solicitor immediately!!!! Sounds like he didn't have one first time around or he wouldn't have lost ALL the equity in the first house!

Good luck, this is a horrible situation to be in - I know.

Prudent

Good advice being given in the post above. It sounds like he is paying out a lot more than he would be forced to do by the csa. I don't know what the take home is on £40k - about £2400 per month? As stated above he should be paying 25% of this for three children. I would guess around £600 ish per month. This would be split 2/3 to wife one and 1/3 to wife to if done by csa.
As stated above they would not take into account any volunatry contributions.

Perhaps the easiest way would be for your friend to enter his net weekly income onto the csa calculators. This will give the total weekly figure which could then be split 2/3 and 1/3. This would mean a drop for wife one and she may of course resist. However other than come to some kind of agreement, her only recourse would be to go via the csa. It looks like she may be getting nearly double the amount that would be set by the csa.

rick27

Agree,very good advise by Ystrad Lad.

Good luck with your friends situation.

I have known persons who have been in far worse situations including someone who started working again after retiring since he lost his house and another less than 40 year old been through 2 divorces with each ex wife in his 2 ex houses and him not having a place to stay,despite them not having worked a day in their lives!

filigree_2

It depends on whether he has a court order to pay the first exwife. If he has, he can go back to court to apply for a downward variation on the order in the light of his change of circumstances.

If he pays Ex #1 voluntarily then he can theoretically stop payments and wait for her to call in the CSA. Alternatively he can use the CSA calculator to estimate the correct payment and hand that over.

If Ex #2 doesn't plan to get paid work she'll have to claim Income Support and she won't get to see any child support because the CSA will take it directly. She'll get whatever Income Support is these days plus a £10 premium because the absent father pays support. There is no point in her demanding lots of money because it won't go in her pocket!

This bloke needs to get legal advice because things get very complicated when you are supporting two families - the old court system and the new CSA system clash.