Clean Break & Children

Please can someone actually explain what Clean Break means in practical terms.

There are children involved, Residency is yet to be sorted.

There are no negociations. He is being very unreasonable in any and every manner regarding finances.

He wants things his way and he is not stopping at any cost and I am worried all this is now spiralling out of control (yes it was like this in our marriage too).

I do not work and I want to continue to take care of my children even more now than before. Both the children are under the age of 10.

Please help as I don''t know what I am doing.
Thanks.

DummyMummy.

The full title is clean break Consent Order.

What this means is you end up with a total separation financially from your ex, no claims can be made on income assets or inheritance, its a total and final end as far as money is concerned.

When you have kids a clean break may not be appropriate because one parent may end up looking after the kids for mots of the time, so in that case there is usually a nominal order for maintenance, so if the parent with care can`t work or their income drops that parent can ask for some help by having the nominal order activated, assuming of course the payer can actually afford to help pay some money.

Many judges wont even consider clean breaks when there are dependent children.

Thank you very much for your reply.

That''s what I thought but he is digging his heels in. He is dismissing that I do not work and have been home as that''s what was jointly agreed in marriage to bring up the children and be a housewife whilst he climbed his career ladder.

He is stating on this account, children are better off with him.
Will the Courts see all this and do I just sit tight?

I am not getting anything from him except for him paying the bills that he has to and he is doing it with great reluctance.
Benefits are minimal and am wondering if I will be able to claim back from him as I don''t want to build up a debt.

Can he just continue like this?

Thank you.
DummyMummy,

What stage are you at in sorting finances?

Your ex may be kidding himself here.

If you post details in relation to
Length of marriage including cohabitation
Your ages
Children and ages
Assets and debts
Respective incomes including benefits
Pensions

More help can be given

Thank you for your reply.

Length of marriage including cohabitation: 12 yrs approx.

Your ages 41 and 40

Children and ages 4 and 9

Assets and debts - dunno what he is doing; only asset I have is my kids and the house which he wants to sell to raise equity for him to have a clean break from me.

Respective incomes including benefits - his earning is about £55k and his perks which i am now not entitled to due to separation. I have child benefit and child working tax thats it.

Pensions - i have no pension, its all his.

I hope this gives an idea.

Thankyou.
DummyMummy

I think a clean break is highly unlikely with two children so young and such a large difference in earnings.

Do you know what the equity is in your home? is it larger than you and the 2 children need? How much would a 3 bed property cost in your area?

If he stops paying the bills you need to instantly apply for child maintenance and possible apply for interim maintenance. Who is paying the mortgage is it in joint names?

It''s not clear whether you are working - if you get working tax credit I assume that you do work a bit. However, if you are only earning a small amount or nothing at all he is unlikely to get a clean break. He will also not get anywhere with the argument that the kids are better off with him just because he has the money. If you have been a full-time or almost full-time parent then you would really have to be a terrible mum (and by that I mean abusive of the children or really seriously neglectful, like not getting them up in the morning for school or feeding them erratically) for him to be able to take them off you.

So:

You should be going for spouse maintenance for at least a few years so that you can get back on your feet. It wouldn''t be unreasonable to ask for it to continue until the younger child is in secondary school. The fact that he is paying the bills is good evidence that you need it. Given that you have little or no income compared with him you could also ask the court for maintenance pending suit which is maintenance to keep you going while the finances are sorted out.

You should also go for a share of his pension. If you have none you ought to get at the very least half of what he has built up during the marriage. If he wants to protect this then maybe he could give you the house (this is a not uncommon arrangement when one person wants to stay in the house with the children) but that depends on how much equity there is in the house and whether you could afford to take over the mortgage.

You should go for more than half the equity in the house, or a mesher order, so that you can continue to house the children. It wouldn''t be unreasonable to ask for 65-70%. Would that enable you to re-house without a mortgage, or do you have very little equity?

Of course you should also have child maintenance at CSA rates - 20% of his income for two children, less an allowance for overnights with him above 52 per year.

Best wishes,
Sadie