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JORDANS SOLICITORS SPECIALISTS IN FAMILY L AW


Barbara Jordan, of Jordans Solicitors, answers a question posed regarding divorce settlements following a marriage breakdown.


QUESTION:


I have been married for 22 years, but my husband has recently left me.


I suspect that he has chosen to do this now because our youngest son has just left home, and I cannot say that our relationship has been good for some time.


John has an extremely good job and is on a very high income. In spite of this, we have not lived very extravagantly, although we have been comfortable, and we have significant property and savings.


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I’ve been told that I can expect to receive 50% of the value of all of our assets, but not 50% of John’s income.


Is this correct and, if so, why? Why should my husband go on to have a higher standard of living than me?


ANSWER:


Certainly, you are right that you are entitled to 50% of the assets you have acquired over the last 20 years, however they have been acquired.


However, the Courts have not supported an equal division of a man’s income, with 50% of that income to be paid to the wife, not least because the man has to still have some incentive to keep going to work at all.


Your husband cannot be forced to work, albeit if he simply made himself unemployed, he would be penalised in capital, but if he is paying higher rate tax on his current income and he had to give you 50% of his income after tax, he would effectively be working for an extraordinarily small percentage of his income and it is unlikely that a Court would see this as fair.


This issue has actually been addressed in the higher courts and His Honour Judge Mostyn has said that spousal maintenance claims should, generally speaking, be dealt with by reference to need alone.


You therefore need to work out how much income you are going to need in order to live comfortably in the future.


You haven’t told me how old you are, but if you are in your early 50s or younger and your children have left home I think a Court is going to require you to make some contribution towards your own cost of living by getting a job with your husband having to top up your income so that it comes closer to the standard of living you have enjoyed during your marriage.


It might be possible for you to take an extra slice of capital in return for giving your husband a clean break and waiving your right to spousal maintenance and, in any event, if there is a pension for you and your husband to share then any spousal maintenance would cease when you were able to draw a reasonable income from your pension.


Jordans Solicitors, the Studio, Lydbrook, Gloucester GL17 9SB and 4 Royal Crescent, Cheltenham, Gloucester GL50 3DA Tel: 01242 386700 www.jordans.legal


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