Shall I appeal court order?

[Rubystar78]

Hello
I attended my final hearing on Friday and was left disappointed with the result. It was a extremely horrific experience, very emotional and I'm now so worried about the future of the children and me. The children are only 12 and 9 and despite his lies in court and questionable income (self employment earnings gone down by half??) The judge agreed with his proposal of;
Selling the house in 6 months
43% share of the equity
38% of a pension he didn't pay into

I feel let down by the justice system and now the children and me are essentially left homeless. I've worked for my employer for 23 years and currently on a part time basis. There's no budget to increase my hours at the moment and I don't want to leave because of all the benefits I receive such as a good pension. Going full time is out of the question at the moment so I won't be able to get a mortgage/buy him out.

Is there any support or advice out there? I feel totally lost 😞

I don't think appealing would change the outcome and its sometimes better for your own MH to just walk away, it's shit , especially when they are SE and lying about earnings but you can do this !

It’s bound to feel very raw
and anxious

be kind to yourself over the coming days
you will start to figure out some options
you’ll start to feel relief it’s ‘over’
you’ll start to be able to make plans and be free knowing that from here on your earnings are yours, your pensions is yours
amd step by step you’ll emerge the other side, stronger, more resilient, and happy

as hard as it is try not to continue to dwell on any sense of injustice - it will only make you bitter and impact you. Not him. Live your life knowing you’re well rid

No, she's asking whether to appeal. Read the original question.

It is not clear from your post who got the 43% and 38%.

Did you self represent or did you use a barrister?

Plus in you didn't mention whether you got any spousal maintenance (before the final order), child maintenance and/or UC?

I think I remember your previous post and your ex only earns 30k per year ( apologies if Ive got this wrong) . So ordering the sale of the house was always going to happen because he can’t afford to purchase a property on his own on that salary without a clean break now. In terms of the pension, is the 38% just for the duration of the marriage or for the whole time you are paying in? I would look at moving to another job with a different pension scheme if it’s for the whole time you’re paying in. You still have many years of work left and I know I wouldn’t be continuing to contribute to a pension that was going to benefit someone I had divorced years earlier. You have to think about yourself now and maximising your earning potential. What was your proposal with regards to division of assets? Could you not have offered more of the house equity to protect your pension? What advice has your solicitor given you with regards to appealing the court order?

Did you have a barrister?

@FSTraining interested in the £1.6k childcare - is this an element of UC or a separate application you can make as a result of receiving UC?

It's an element of Universal Credit. You can get up to 85% of your childcare costs or £950.62 per month, whichever is the lower amount, for one child. If you have more than one child you can get up to £1,630.15 a month. This amount has to be used within that month and larger amounts cannot be used for shorter periods (e.g. you couldn't save it up and use 12 months' worth in the summer holidays). However, there is a flexible support fund or a budgeting advance that may help if you have to pay upfront. The childcare provider must be registered too, so you can't pay a relative.

Of course, going back to the original question, this is why we warned the OP of the likely outcome. Even without this recent increase in support (not long ago the amounts were more like £650 for one child and £1.1k for more than one) it is becoming increasingly likely in modest cases that the higher earner can build a case that the other party can work full time immediately, even with young children.

That's not really how pension splits work. You might get a pension attachment order when a couple are already close to retirement but normally the recipient spouse will be transferred a ringfenced amount that doesn't receive further contributions unless they pay into it themselves.

The Law is a blunt tool and unless you can acquire the expertise (lawyers, actuaries and forensic accountants) it doesn’t get any sharper in court. I don’t think you can afford anymore legal action.

Now is the time to make peace with what has happened. When you last posted and on this post people are giving well meaning but untenable advice.

We all have aspirations in life, some achievable and some not. The reality for many of us is that we have to make choices based on what is most important to us.

My personal advice is to look at the best way to increase your income to stay on the housing ladder. Given the ages of your children you appear to be too young to be trapped into a PT job and pension.