How would redundancy affect maintenance?

Legacy_user

Hi there

Totally ignorant on how this all works and at the moment it is all hypothetical, fingers crossed it stays that way.

My husband pays substantial maintenance to ex wife in respect of six year old child. That was agreed when their divorce was finalised and was based on his earnings at that time.

Suppose he was to be made redundant

He is sole earner in our household as I'm presently being a full time mum to our young daughter. So other than mortgage payment protection and any redundancy money he would get, we would be scratching around trying to support our own household, let alone find maintenance for ex wife until he finds another job.

Anyone know how it all works - is it possible to get the maintenance adjusted and if so does that mean solicitors getting involved and therefore another huge bill that we couldn't afford!!! :P

Hope someone can help me.

Spendless

Are his maintainance payments thru CSA if so in event of redundancy he should inform them of change of circs.
You are probably better off putting this on benefits board where I'm sure Fran or Ted will advise.

Noozan

If your husband is made redundant; he can have his maintanance payments adjusted (throught the courts if necessary)

As a general rule, he should be paying 15% of his income as child maintenance for one child. If his child stays with you on a regular basis, the maintenance is reduced on a sliding scale. It should also be further reduced as he has a second family to support.

Does his ex wife work?

jockettuk

dont wish to appear cheeky here but his matinence isnt for his ex wife its for his child.. i know it goes to his ex wife to help her bring up there child.. so if he gets redundancy money he should carry on paying for the upkeep of his child.. i know he has a new family but the other child was always there.. the csa might adjust his payments.. if he is on good terms with his ex (but who is these days) she might if able to let him off a few months or half payments till he gets another job.. its always a difficult situation when finances change and there is a second family to look after..

Noozan

Hey calm down! I realise that the maintenance is for his child! Yes, the other child was there first but any income her husband earns has to be divided between two families now - it wouldn't be fair for either child to "go without."

I was just asking if the ex worked and could therefore afford for the maintenance to be reduced!

My partner has a child by his ex and he pays her an informally agreed amount every month. We have his daughter to stay on regular basis and since we have two incomes, and can now afford it, we can afford to give his daughter a regular allowance and buy her any clothes, etc that she wants/needs. Its a 2 way street.

Having said that, his ex is always citing lack of cash (she works full time and earns twice as much as me! ::) ) as a reason why she can't get this, that or the other for her daughter. I don't mind that we splash out on his daughter - I see her as a good friend, but it does aggrieve me that his ex chooses to have a huge mortgage on a 4 bed detached house for just her and daughter and then complain she can't afford it!!

I actually know a woman who has a daughter by an ex live in partner. He owned the house they lived in adn when they split up, she had him evicted. She now lives rent free in his house while he has to pay maintenance for bith her and her daughter. She is quite open about the fact that she has no intention of getting a job; she also has a new partner now but won't live with him as it would mean she would have to hand the house nack to her ex and would only get maintenance for their daughter and not herself.

I am a woman (obviously! lol) but I really feel for men who get taken to the cleaners. The law can be so unfair towards men. >:(

jockettuk

yes i agree that the law is a !!!!!! sometimes.. i am a single mum so to speak i live in the marital home.. my ex pays the morgage on it as its cheaper than paying maintence..  I stayed in the house because it suited my daughters schooling etc.. moving would have meant her leaving a good school.  he will get half the house when i sell up even though i have maintained the house by putting new windows in etc... he moved in with another woman and her kids who want for nothing. i have a new partner who doesnt live with me because i choose it that way but when im ready to i will move in with him or him with me..  sometimes dads forget that they have a child when they move out or have other families .. i wasnt having a go at anyone i was just stating that no matter what happens with the redundancy the maintence still has to be paid... I could have taken my ex husband to the cleaners so to speak but i chose not to .. my ex has and never will have to pay maintence for me but he will for his child, the child we both lovinly brought into this world..  oh and they both work earning 4 times more than i do but i choose not to smoke or drink so my daughter has a good quality of life , and he is the one spouting that he cant afford this or that not me.. but he never seems to go without!!

System

Hi there

Thanks for responses.

No, his maintenance wasn't through the csa, but just arranged through the solicitors when the divorce was finalised - and set out in a court order.  It was based on 15% rule which was fine at the time as I was also working.  Now I'm not, its a struggle to find the money (its always my child who ends up going without which upsets me) but it would be an impossibility if my husband was to be made redundant.  I appreciate that he has a duty to the child, and that it isn't "ex-wife's" maintenance as such, but we couldn't just magic the money from nowhere!  ;)

The ex wife doesn't work, but she has remarried and has another child with her husband (who works).

They are on reasonably good terms but I feel quite sure that if he were to lose his job and tell her that he couldn't afford maintenance, she wouldn't be sympathetic and would still expect the money to be paid on its due day!

That's why we need to know the legalities of it all.  Can you just go to the courts and ask for an adjustment? Or do you have to start contacting solicitors thereby incurring more expense!

Also, another question that springs to mind whilst writing this is whether any savings resulting from my own redundancy which are held in my own name, could be taken into account for hubby's maintenance payments?? These are only intended to be used for absolute emergencies and if I'm honest, I would be gutted if these were taken into account to pay for hubby's former family.

And finally just wanted to say in response to a comment that was made, that my husband isn't the sort of person to forget his first child who stays with us every other weekend and wants for nothing.  It isn't a case of us being tight, just that we have hefty outgoings and his probably meagre redundancy package would certainly not cover those and cover maintenance at the current level. I certainly wasn't suggesting we pay nothing, just a realistic amount based on our income and I wanted to know how to go about doing this.

Like I said, hopefully it is all hypothetical, but there are rumblings on the office grapevine which is obviously a worry when money is tight in the first place. :P

Spendless

You would probably be better off asking this question on benefits board. Why don't you pm the moderator and ask them to move it for you?

jockettuk

did you have your original agreement done whilst you were both working and the ex was single if this is the case why dont you ask for it to be reviewed, as curcumstances have changed.. you could ring your solicitor up and ask him/her over the phone if you can just apply to the courts to have this looked at.. i never meant for it to come over as he wouldnt pay anything if he got made redundant as im sure he loves both his children equally.

System

Hi

We thought about applying for it to be downwardly adjusted when I stopped work, but my husband didn't really want his son to be affected so we decided to leave it and see if we could manage. Whatever, whilst he is working, the csa would always say 15% whether or not I'm working - and we think she would go straight to them if he tried to get it lowered, so all a bit pointless.

Sorry if I came across as defensive - just didn't want it to sound like he would try and dodge his responsibilities.

And I managed to work out how to pm the moderator, so I guess this thread will move at some point. Although, I'm not absolutely sure it would come under that category given that we aren't paying maintenance through the csa. Need a divorce board maybe? ;D

babysaver

If the maintenance was sorted out through the courts, then unless your husband and his ex come to an amicable arrangement about reduced payments then you'd probably have to go through the whole court thing again to have it reduced. If the maintenance was through CSA, he would have to pay 15% of whatever he earned (this would be reduced depending on how often his daughter stays overnight with you) - your income wouldn't be taken into account. I don't know how it would work if you went back to court though. I didn't think courts were allowed to make child maintenance orders nowadays - thought they all had to be through CSA.

Hope the worst doesn't happen though and this remains a hypothetical discussion