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Hi
I was divorced over 2 years ago. It was messy and involved a lengthy hearing with 3 court appearances. I was living with my new partner and I had one daughter living in the former maritial home.
I was ordered to continue paying a sum that covered the mortage / 2nd charge around £1300 - this was based on my earnings of around £30000. I have abided by that order and since leaving home have contrinuted over £65000 to mortgage and child allowance payments. I stated in court that I may be made redundant - however following a round of redundancies in 2009 the company was saved by a management buy out and I retained my post. I was forced to go bankrupt in order to live with my new partner and contribute ... the debts were unsecured and I had been silly trying to buy myself back into a failing marriage. I learnt my lesson and am now debt free. My daughter turns 18 in June 2011.
I have today been told that I could be made redundant on the 21st December ... I am feeling sick with worry. Whilst my new partner has a good wage £30000 she took a major hit when paying for my legal fees and now some debt as well. I will leave with around £12000 - which is made up of statatory pay x 2 and some pay in lieu of notice not sure how that gets paid.
I will not receive legal advice so may have to use some of redundancy to pay for legal advice ... I receive a Army pension - around £540 a month but I really will need to contribute at least £500 to my new partner to cover food, bills and council tax. I am pretty sure benefits wll be minimal. I am planning of meeting payments for December, January and possibly February ... but need to know will I have to give up my redundancy money? I am 48 and I am pretty certain that I will have problems getting a job in the SW. What should I do? I am not on speaking terms with my former spouse and she was unreasonable throughout.
I think I will have to vary the order but what is likely to happen? She is living with her new partner however they are ensuring that they do not register on council tax etc .. She has paid nothing and the house was transfered into her sole name and this has made things difficult in the past for changing the mortgage etc as she refuses to sign anything.. Will she have to go to the benefits office? or should I? as the house legally is not mine....
The order states that I should continue to pay until my daughters 18th birthday - after which provisio the house is in equity it should be sold - she keeps all equity. What can I do? It is putting pressure on my new partner I need to live... Any advice appreciated on the legal position.
Scared!
Hi Scared,
You're clearly going through a tough time at the moment; both financially and emotionally.
I'm no expert on this but I would assume that, at some stage, you will be eligible for contribution based jobseekers allowance. This would be paid for six months and would then be reviewed, but as your partner is working I doubt that JSA would be paid beyond that initial period.
In terms of maintance and childcare payments, you cannot, realistically, continue to pay the amounts outlined in your post.
In terms of financial management advice I would contact the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. They gave me some excellent advice and just making contact with them eased the majority of my worries.
In terms of child care payments you could speak to the Children's Legal Centre. There's a link to their site above. Perhaps one of the other Dad's will forward this post to them? If not you can contact them directly for some free advice.
With regards to maintenence payments, I'm afraid I have absolutely no experience in this area. I would suggest contacting your local Citizen's Advice Bureau, or having a chat with a new solicitor (the first 45 minutes are usually free). If anyone on here has been through the same thing, I'm sure they'll offer some advice or share their experiences with you...
Hi Scared
Sorry, I don't know why I missed this post originally, so it's been a while before you got a reply. However, I would agree totally with the advice you've been given above. Keep posting on here and hopefully next time, you'll get a quicker response.
Hi Scared
Firstly, welcome to Dadtalk. I'm sorry to hear about this situation and I can understand how anxious you must be feeling. You've been given some good advice here but I am going to forward your post on to the Children's Legal Centre for their input. Due to it being the holidays, they may take a few days to reply to you, but please do keep looking out for their post on this Legal Eagle thread.
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