Spousal maintenance

Hi can anyone tell me if spousal maintenance is payable on a specific level of income, ie;does the payee have to earn a certain amount before sm will be considered?
Secondly is it usual to tick the box for periodical payments on Form A in an application for Ancillary Relief. Do periodical payments relate solely to spousal maintenance or does that include child maintenance payments as well?

Thank you

Periodical payments is the correct wording for spousal maintenance and not connected to child support.

Payment is based on need of both parties to enable living alone. The level of SM will depend on many factors;

Length of marriage
Housing needs
Payees ability to pay
Earning potential of recipient
SM ends on re marriage or cohabitation of more than 6 month by recipient.

If you put Spouseal Maintenance into search on this site, there are very informative doc''s

thanks for the reply -
the length of marriage is 17 years
the payee has just about enough money at the end of the month to break even
both parties earn the same amount roughly
payee has his housing needs met as he is now co-habiting wiht new partner

Thanks

Tick it anyway, remember the old adage "two can live as cheap as one", she will have to put her earnings etc into form E!!! that will shock them .....

It''s usual to tick all the boxes apart from Maintenance Pending Suit to leave the options open. When both parties earn the same spouse maintenance is highly unlikely, except perhaps a nominal amount if there are children.

If there is no order for spouse maintenance at the time of divorce one cannot be made later so often there is a nominal amount of SM, say £5 per annum, so that the order can be varied in the future if the parent with the majority of child care cannot work because of redundancy or ill health.

Divorcing spouse are asked to disclose the finances of a new partner. A new partner should be contributing towards the living costs of their new household which decreases the expenses of the divorcing spouse and increases their disposable income.

However, if the divorcing spouse doesn''t know the details of a new partner''s finances they cannot disclose them. In this case it might be inferred that the new partner shares living expenses equally and only in exceptional circumstances, for example when income is being diverted to the new spouse, would there be further investigation.

My b.....d lives with the s..g he left me for but keeps a flat as a postal address with the sole intention of falsifying his needs and giving me less of the pot. I will get a PI when the time comes but does anyone know what constitutes living together in the eyes of the law. Remember he''s a lawyer.

There is no legal definition of cohabitation and it''s difficult to prove. Cohabiting doesn''t always make as much difference to the finances as people think. It''s quite possible to pay more trying to prove cohabitation than can be gained.

PIs can be very expensive and you need to be careful they work within the law. A good PI will only work with instructions from a solicitor otherwise any evidence may not be admissible in court.