Clean Break & Children

Dummymummy,
I think your first step is sorting out child maintenance. You are entitled to 20% of his take home pay for two kids. I estimate about £640 a month assuming he pays 5% pension contributions.You can contact CSA to get this.
Given the fact that you agreed that you should not work and raise the kids you will also be entitled to some Spousal Maintenance. The only way to make him pay this is to take him to court. It might be easier to just let the courts deal with SM and CM together rather than trying to get them sorted separately. First step is to take a maintenance pending suit and I would get this lodged ASAP as they usually only backdate it to when it was lodged. I wouldn''t recommend doing this without a solicitor. At the minute you are financially vulnerable so I really recommend taking steps to stabilize that.
My stbx gets other benefits from work e.g. health insurance. I am still entitled to these until we get divorced.
As you are the primary carer for the kids it is unlikely that he would be awarded custody so he is just being mean and threatening on this issue.
If he threatens that he will make you sell the house he can''t do it. The needs of the kids are the primary consideration and they need a roof over their heads. The asset split will be decided later on. For now I recommend sorting out immediate financial needs.
On the positive side it sounds to me like you are better off without someone like him. It is tough but it does get easier so stay strong, keep smiling and enjoy the kids!

Be careful if you go to CSA he may stop paying bills and you could be worse off. Use the CSA calculator to check.

Thanks you for your help.

Yes I remember my solicitor stating the very same thing about my financial situation worsening if I went down the route of CSA.


Kind Regards,
DummyMummy

dukey wrote:

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.

I had one with my ex wife - we have children. No doubt the reasons where I was a danger - the kids were safer and better off with her. I was a monster and better off dead.