spousal maintenance

[ChickOnaMission]

Originally posted in divorce section but might be better off here...

I’m separating from my husband of 10 years and want to find out what my rights are with regards to spousal maintenance & child maintenance,

We have two children 2 & 8 – when we met I did not have a well paid job. I went back to work when my daughter was 2 and got a job in finance which I did for two years. I left this job in order to spend more time with the my daughter & have another baby. I worked part time. Had I stayed in the finance job I would have undoubtedly been on a good salary by now – at least £40,000 and probably much more. When I quit my job my husband set up his own company which has done ok- the last year has been tough – his take home income last year was £60k. It will most likely be considerably more this year. I’ve just gone back to work in finance but had to start right at the bottom again - my salary is £22k.

We’ve got no house, no assets at all. And he does owe about £12k to HMRC. He’s terrible with money, he earns lots but wastes it , runs up utility bills and doesn’t pay anything on time. I’m worried he’ll try to hide his money overseas, his business is international

I don’t want to have to go to a solicitor and incur legal costs I want to get an idea of what is considered fair for him to give us. I feel that he should contribute something for me as I gave up my career prospects to look after the kids, and support him while he set up his own business.

Can anyone advise me how to approach this with him, how much of his income he should give us and prove that it is what the courts would award me.

[VBisme]

Definitely get legal advice, but it is unusual for courts to award a woman who is working and capable of continuing to work spousal maintenance.

You would probably have got a larger share of the assets, but I see that there aren't any.

But back to my first point, I think it would be unwise not to get legal advice, you can get 30 minutes free.

[timidviper]

It is very difficult to pin these things down when you are talking about what you might have earned rather than what you did earn.

My one piece of advice would be to be pragmatic about it all. We know someone whose now ex-husband is a high earner and she pursued him for spousal maintenance, incurring large solicitors bills in the process. He, however, was paying off debts incurred during the marriage, rent for her as well as mortgage on family home which was not selling, child maintenance, etc so although he had a high income he also had very high outgoings. She ended up with large bills and £1 per year maintenance