Darren,
The primary objective of a Court is to make sure both of you have a home, and in particular your child.
So your wife doesn''t work. At the moment, with a three year old child, I don''t think I''d expect her to.
She needs a home for herself and the child but if we assume she is not going to work for some time, then the question arises as to how she will afford that accommodation.
As a first step she must consider what her post separation income would be.
At the moment we are looking at a permutation and combination of the following :
Child support ;
Spousal maintenance ;
Tax credits ;
Child benefit ;
( Possibly ) Housing benefit
Council tax benefit.
So one option is that she lives in the former
marital home, and with a three year old child that could be a very long time.
On your income, I would say spousal maintenance is a virtual certainty. I hate to be pessimistic, but I think that a joint lives order is quite a strong probability. That doesn''t necessarily mean it is actually for life, but this is a situation we come across in wiki over and over again.
You mention the option of selling the house and giving her the proceeds. Well, it''s an option, but I think your wife will be advised against this. I say this because, if she is allowed to live in the former marital home for a long time, she will get a pretty fair slice of the proceeds when the property has to be sold anyway. If she gets a sum of £30K it will disqualify her from housing and council tax benefit and she would be forced to spend the greater part of it.
This is why it is essential that your wife''s potential benefit entitlement is considered because it can amount to quite a tidy sum.
I don''t think you need to worry about accommodation on your own account, you will certainly be allowed enough to rent, and that , I think, would be sufficient to allow staying access to your child.
This is a pretty pessimistic view of your circumstances, and I always worry that my own experience of the divorce process has made me that way. It would be interesting to see whether you have any other comments from others.
LMM