Global Maintenance, can it be varied?

[Rob2963]

Hello just want some advice. My partner pays global maintenance to his ex wife. This consists of child maintenance and a top up to pay towards their household Bill's. He pays a high amount as it goes off his wage. She was working part time at the time it was calculated. After the court order was made she went back to work full time (a week after, eventhough she told the courts she was unable to return to work full time). Cut forward a few year and his ex has now had a child to someone else and is denying that her and her partner live together. She has now reduced her hours back down to part time since having another child. My partner feels that since his ex has had another child he should not have to pay the global maintenance element and just child maintenance. Has anyone had a similar experience and what was their outcome?

He can ask for a variation which may or may not be granted

He is going to court. He is not asking to change the child maintenance element just the global part.

Yes but that either will or won’t be accepted. He’ll need to have clear evidence in change if circumstances ( usually changes to his) that would give weight to why a change would be supported

As far as I know, spousal support only stops when the receiving person remarries, like in all cases, it will stop when they remarry. Global maintenance is basically CM and SM. There could be variations made if the receiving person gains a 'significant amount more earnings than when the order was made', 'cohabits with someone that makes a substantial contribution to the household' and the receiving person goes on to have more children that are of no biological relation to the paying person. It's always left up to the court to decide though but they'll look at a case if any of those 3 things have happened from what I've read

Hi Rob,

I have just been through variation proceedings which took two years to finalise, so buckle up. It's not a short process. It was for joint lives spousal maintenance only but what I can add is that there wasn't a change of circumstances on either side but it still went to final hearing and I ended up with capitalised maintenance which is great for me but may not be what you want. If you have assets, including pensions, these can be considered as the courts prefer a clean break.

However, in your case the court could see the new child as a change of circumstances for the ex-wife but you would need some solid evidence of cohabiting with the father if that's what you think they are doing. I believe hiring a private investigator and photo surveillance for two weeks is one option. The relevant bit is how much the ex-wife needs to live and who is contributing or not contributing to her household needs. Tricky if they aren't living together.

Variation applications are risky. My ex-husband thought he had it sewn up and ended up paying me a six figure sum.

Good luck