Seperation from Wife Financial

dontknowwhattodonext

After 25 years of marriage I think thhis time has come to go our seperate ways,  we have no children.  Live in a rented home both names on the agreement, I work full time, my wife does not work.  Due to my salary, there no benefits claimed.  I reallise I would need to support her, but any idea for how long?

Tooskint

I think that she would be expected to get a job as you dont have any dependents.  Speak to your solicitor for guidance before offering anything.

Gavin83

Why doesn’t your wife work? How long has that been the case?

She’ll likely be expected to support herself going forward. A court might rule you to support her for a short period but even this is unlikely. However she’ll be entitled to a share of the finances, including any pensions you’ve saved. This is likely to be 50% but could vary depending on circumstances. How old are the two of you?

dontknowwhattodonext

We have savings and both have pensions (myself by far the biggest).  I am 50, wife is 56, she not worked at all for the last 3 years and prior to that was part time.  She does not want to work and my salary support us,  just.

Pollycat

dontknowwhattodonext said:

We have savings and both have pensions (myself by far the biggest).  I am 50, wife is 56, she not worked at all for the last 3 years and prior to that was part time.  She does not want to work and my salary support us,  just.

Your wife won't get her state pension until she's 66.
Spousal maintenance is rare.
What does she expect to live on?
A lot of people do jobs that they don't like.
Your wife may have to revise her expectations.

Marisco

dontknowwhattodonext said:

After 25 years of marriage I think thhis time has come to go our seperate ways,  we have no children.  Live in a rented home both names on the agreement, I work full time, my wife does not work.  Due to my salary, there no benefits claimed.  I reallise I would need to support her, but any idea for how long?

Why? Is she disabled or ill and cannot work? If not, there is no need for you to support her, she'll have to do what many of us did, i.e find a job and support herself.

Gavin83

dontknowwhattodonext said:

We have savings and both have pensions (myself by far the biggest).  I am 50, wife is 56, she not worked at all for the last 3 years and prior to that was part time.  She does not want to work and my salary support us,  just.

So there’s no reason for her not to work, it’s just laziness?

If so she’ll need to adjust per position, you are no longer responsible for her, and honestly wasn’t anyway. You are of course free to do what you wish but frankly you’d be a total mug choosing to support her post separation so unless you wish to be a total doormat I’d suggest being a bit more firm.

Don’t agree to spousal maintenance. She will however be entitled to 50% of the assets.

TBagpuss

Once you separate, she will be classed as single so will be able to apply for Universal Credit or other benefits. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/ is a useful place to start to see what she may be eligible to claim. It is likely to be more difficult for her than for you to find a new tenancy so it may make sense for you to jointly approach your landlord about ending the existing tenancy and issuing a new one to her in her sole name.
Given that you have been married for 35 years the start point would be for an equal split of the assets, so a pension sharing order to equalise the pensions is likely to be appropriate. 
What (roughly) do you earn? Spousal maintenance is rare these days and unless you have a very well paid job so that you could reasonably be expected to support yourself *and* pay her maintenance, and leave her better off than if she was working or claiming benefits, it's unlikely that you will be expected to pay. It may be reasonable for you to continue to pay the rent and bills for the first few weeks after you separate as it will take a little while for any benefit claim she makes to be processed. 

dontknowwhattodonext

Yes, no reason for her not work work, my salary is 50k, we have a rent contract rewal due June 2020. 

Pollycat

dontknowwhattodonext said:

Yes, no reason for her not work work, my salary is 50k, we have a rent contract rewal due June 2020. 

Then I think you have to have a frank talk with her and explain that her life is about to change. Big style.

Mrsn

As explained spousal maintenance is very rare these days.

The fact of the matter is that there isn’t a valid reason as to why she can’t work so when she inevitably has to claim for universal credit she will be expected to look for work and it will be for the equivalent of 35 hours payable at the national minimum wage rate. 

She has been very lucky up until this point that she has had the luxury of having the time to do as she wishes.