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My wife and I divorced amicably earlier this year. So she could buy a house that our three children could live in, I didn't fight her and agreed to a 75/25 split in her favour, even though a lawyer told me I could get 40%, 35% at worst. I also agreed to pay her £2,200 per month from my salary of £6,000 at that time. Unfortunately, I lost my job at the end of July but was paid until 24 September. Since then, I have had no income despite multiple interviews for jobs and freelance work. My ex wife is still demanding I pay her the same figure even though I have no money coming in. I explained to her that every penny I now give her has to come out of the money I got from our house sale – I have no other savings. We have three children – 19, 17 and 14. I'm happy to send money home for them (we're very close despite me not being around much), but I'm not sure why I have to keep paying her when I have no source of income. Can someone please explain my legal obligations? Do I really have to pay her out of my savings? It seems grossly unfair considering the split was so skewed in her favour – I agreed to it to protect the future for our children. I am currently in Vietnam where I have been working for almost 4 years. If I send home £1,200 a month (£1,000 less than we agreed), am I breaking our contract– or does the Law take into account financial hardship? And can I send money directly to the children's bank accounts rather than to her? She tells me she has financial obligations but as she is working and drawing an income from her own business, it seems that the money I am sending to her is simply paying for her new (small) mortgage and doing a house makeover (I saw her new place a fortnight ago). Little is going to our children – just basic food, not even any new clothes this year apart from those bought with birthday money. I send them each £50 a month as a top up for treats. After speaking to them when I was back in the UK at the end of October, that is only matched by what she gives them. So our eldest daughter is suffering at University financially because she is having to survive on £100/month, as well as the Government subsidies. Do I have any say in how the money is spent that I send to my ex wife? Can I mandate that she spends a certain amount on our children? I used the online Child Support Agency calculator. It said if I was earning £6,000, I'd need to pay £1,028 for them. But as I'm earning nothing, I pay nothing. This isn't realistic but I'm only asking to reduce the figure. One other note is that a condition of our divorce settlement was that I took out insurance to cover the payments. To be honest, I didn't. However, I checked online and no company pays immediately on loss of income – usually after 3 months – then pays up to 50% of your previous salary, and only for a maximum of 12 months. I do hope to find a job soon, but if I am forced to keep paying her the fixed amount, my savings will dwindle rapidly until I have nothing left. A very sad way to go considering I paid around £1.2m in mortgage payments over the course of our marriage.
Hi There,
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I am guessing that the amount that you pay her monthly was written into the divorce settlement, if that is the case then it stands for 12 months and until that point you can't use the calculations through CSA.
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I don't know what happens if you lose your job and have no income though, I've not come across that before, I do know that I stopped my payment to my ex too soon as the CSA payments weren't ready to be taken over and I had a letter from the court ordering that I pay the money I owed or they would order me back to court for a hearing.
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I would maybe phone the court and ask them for some adivice, have your case number to hand so that they can look things up.
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GTTS
Thanks eversomuch for your advice GTTS. I'll call the Court now.
Hi There,
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How did you get on?
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GTTS
Hi GTTS, thanks for asking. The response from the Court was this:
As your circumstances have changed, you may want to consider making a formal application to the Court to vary the existing Consent Order.
To do this you would need to complete form D11 and the Court fee is £155.00 made payable to HMCTS.
If you are unable to pay the fee you would need to complete form EX160 which is our Help with fees form. There is also a guidance leaflet numbered EX160A.
All Court forms can be located either on the Court’s own website www.justice.gov.uk and follow the link to Court form finder or you may be able to obtain them via www.gov.uk website
The Court are unfortunately not in a position to guide you as to whether you need a Solicitor, but we would always ask if you are able to seek Legal Advice prior to making any approach to the Court. The Citizens Advice Bureau may be able to assist you with free legal advice or pointing you in the right direction to obtain free legal advice.
However, it is unclear as to how you would seek advice from the CAB as you reside abroad.
As there is a possibility of the other party not being in agreement to a variation of the Consent Order, your application will more than likely attract a hearing, and the District Judge may therefore require your attendance.
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I have subsequently asked a Lawyer for assistance. I will know by the end of this week my legal obligations and let you know. It's odd that I can't find any advice online about maintenance payments during financial hardship. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.
Hope all is good with you.
Regards
Chris
Hi There,
.
Your case is a little different most people who have issues paying are purely through CSA/CMS and you then call them to adjust, becuase you are still under the court order it's a little different as you need to vary the order.
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Hopefully your solicitor can advise you.
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GTTS
Hi GTTS, I found this:
and this
Both very smart, up-to-date and filled with comments that I'm ploughing through.
I'll update you with the outcome from my Lawyer later this week.
Again, thank you for your advice and interest.
I did the research and not sure if it still the same but I lost my job and had a court agreement, had to put it writing and gave the ex a copy which she promptly refused to take with her, wondering what the situation is now for you Chris?
going through a similar thing but I stopped my payments after 3 months without work and I was like you using savings to pay her.
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