greater need for maitenance?

How do periodical maintenance payments work?
The divorce has been done and dusted for nearly 10 years now. There is a section in the Consent Order which awards ex-wife £1 per year SM along with CM. This £1 was awarded so that if her financial position deteriorated she had an avenue back to court for higher SM. This bit I understand. What I don't know is could her financial position ever deteriorate because she was on Income Support with the DSS paying the mortgage at the time, and still is. She is however saying that as daughter gets older her need for SM increases and she hasn't been paying the endowment on the mortgage and says that if it gets reposessed her need will be even greater still!! Is this true or is she just blowing hot air?
Can anyone advise?
Many thanks
Caterpillar

I would have thought that if by her own actions (not paying the endowment) she brings about her increased need then she will find it tougher to argue for increased SM.

Unless costs really have increased (i.e. interest rates going up, cost of living etc) in which cases for these elements she may have a case.

If she does lose the house then I do think this could be bad for you. Depending on whether the council fully meets her housing needs.

In your favour is the 10 years and i certainly think the courts will be more reluctant to increase SM now after such a long time than if these events were occuring just a couple of years after the divorce.

As you can tell i'm hedging my bets and to be honest cannot be confident which way it may go.

She is still claiming the same benefits as she was when the order was made so would rising living costs be an issue because Income Support rises also. Will the DSS continue to cover the interest payments in full as rates rise? They seem to have done so far but is there an upper limit to what they will pay?

Caterpillar

Hi caterpillar,

I don't see how your daughter getting older would make her need more SM. More CM maybe (teenagers certainly do seem to be more expensive than younger ones), though the CSA don't take age of children into account at all. It might be reasonable to pay more voluntarily towards your daughter's costs if she can show why they have increased, but they surely shouldn't affect her own needs.

Sadie

DownButNotOut wrote:

If she does lose the house then I do think this could be bad for you. Depending on whether the council fully meets her housing needs.

Caterpillar, I don't know which Local Authority area you live in but in E&W most Local Authoritites have a duty to provide housing even on an emergency basis and she will be offered housing deemed suitable for her needs and as long as she can prove she has not made or is making herself homeless (i.e. she has just stopped paying the mortgage to spend it on clothes). She can be given a higher priority if like my Local Authority you have a homeless unit that can determine the need and priority and they have a target of a 33 day turn around from inital appointment to dertermination of need and level of priority. i would imagine that it would be similar to where your ex lives. So her housing needs can be met, its a matter of whether she can afford to run the new home