Finances - hit me up

[thirtyseven37]

We are separating. Currently living in the same house. All major bills including mortgage come out of his account. Childcare and trips come out of mine. This is because he earns substantially more than I do.
How do we get our finances sorted? He is paying for nearly everything but I can't afford anything.
I don't know if I'd be eligible for UC.
Should all our bills come out of a joint account that we both pay a % of our salary in to?

Who is staying in the house? In my case, my ex moved out and I‘m staying whilst we sort the finances. He stopped paying everything and I took over. He paid statutory child maintenance based on his earnings and I claimed UC and child benefit until I managed to maximise my income by working more hours.

I’m not sure if this is the normal approach or not!

He earned 5 times what I did when he left so CM was a decent amount and I could just about get by. Also claimed 25% discount on council tax etc.

Are you married ?

I'm married. STBEX is refusing to move out. We have to cohabit for now. It's really early days.

Could you afford your current home on your wages , CM plus UC? If not, you are going to have to move out or sell and split the proceeds.

There are online calculators for CM and UC. Your ex is only legally obliged to pay CM and if he’s self employed then he’ll be able to manipulate the figures to pay you less.

No!! I'm literally earning £200 a week so hardly anything

You’ll need to gather information regarding

earnings
assets ( equity/pensions/savings/anything else)
debts ( mortgage/loans/financing etc

if you’re part time you’ll need to consider full time
you’ll need to look into any benefits might be entitled to
child maintenance

if you can’t afford to but him out and pay things it’s likely you won’t be able to ultimately remain in the home

how old are children?
what are your relative incomes

Full-time isn't an option because I have to do the school run

That is not a barrier
youll need to consider breakfast club/after school club/childminder/flexible working.

Oh and the childrens dad should help too

It is a barrier and I'm fed up trying to explain to people over and over again that I can't work full-time. There is no breakfast club. breakfast club has no available spaces. There is no childminder. all the childminders in my area that do a school drop off are fully booked. I cannot rely on the children's Dad because he travels and is often abroad. Both sets of grandparents are over 40 minutes away. I cannot do flexible working because I work in education and they are already letting me go in to work late for three days a week I cannot work past 4:30 pm because I need to get my kids.

Well it’s impossible for anyone here to say what the outcome will be

you are separating
you’ll need to split into 2 households
financing that will be harder than one household

we don’t know what your incomes are or assets, but unless he’s a very high earner you’ll be expected to maximise your earnings, or claim uc top up if you can or cut your cloth

unless he’s a very high earner you’re likely to have to pay your own mortgage /rent/bills with only cms contributions

you may be awarded higher share of assets

but we don’t k law you’re situation so can’t advise

Don’t know not don’t k law

in the interim you’ll need to agree who pays for what as there’s no right /wrong