Fair financial split

[Twogorgeousgirls7]

Without going into all the detail and emotion, what would be a fair split on the following?

Together for 18 years
married for 12 years
two children - 14 and 17
family home valued at £650,000 (4 bed) no mortgage to pay

Party 1:
previously held jobs with salary between £70,000-£120,000
taken voluntary redundancy and
now working part time/ self employed for £10 per hour for the past 10 months. Salary currently projected at £10,000 - £20,000 a year

youngest child lives with party 1
and occasionally stays with party 2

no mortgage or rent to pay as living in family home.

pension pot of approx £26,000 per year

party 2:
has job earning approx £37,000 per year.

eldest child lives with party 2 and in further education. Doesn't stay with party 1

Rent to pay on accommodation and only affordable with
savings/loan supplement. Currently £27,000 debt owed

pension pot of perhaps £3,000 per year.

Can anyone give a rough estimate?

50:50 of house equity, pension CETV and debt (assume debt built up as result of housing costs), and CMS as a base for maintenance. Maintenance may be nil for now and you may need to come to some private arrangement when DC1 turns 18 depending on whether they are working or in education.

Party 1 - pension pot of £26k or a yearly pension that is payable of £26k at retirement?
If it is the later, the CETV of the pension pot will be massive.
You will need the CETV of party 2 pension too.
Will all be in the pot for division between the both of you.
Also if party 1 is part time and employed, they can't be earning £10ph as this is under the NMW. Self-employed is different.

Thanks, yes it’s a £26,000 yearly pension so would be a big pot I’m sure. CETV of party 2 will be around £70k total so a very small pension provision there of perhaps £3000 a year?

party 1 salary is a bit vague, but would not be declared as any more than that I’m sure 😔

The CETV for party 1 pension will dwarf the house value then.
Any savings at all? Cars? Where has the redundancy gone? Other assests?
Form E will probably require salary declaration.

Ages of both parties will also be relevant here

CETV of pension 1 will approximate house value if based on age 65 retirement, and seriously exceed it if it's payable from 60. So, some form of pension sharing should be considered.

Both have needs to house children, so an overall 50/50 split would be potential starting point. In addition to fairness, some people have specific aims regarding the family home, or the pension, which may tilt the actual settlement.

Ages will matter, not least because pensions may be taken at age 55 (at a reduced level) and converted to lump sums.

Party 1 is 53 and Party 2 is 46.

no saving for Party 2, not sure for Party 1.

Redundancy was approx £12k but no idea what happened to it.

half of the £26k yearly is payable at 55, rest at 60

each party has a vehicle of roughly the same value.

thanks so much to you all for your guidance!

House needs to be sold

youre probably looking at 50 50 split or near there of all assets

party b should not be picking up all costs of renting while party a has sole use of marital
home with no mortgage while As capital is tied up in it. The debt incurred needs to be assigned jointly and cleared before asset split of remaining pot

This sell house share equity equally. Pension share. All very straight forward. There will be enough equity for you both to start again. Once DC 1 turns 19 or leaves education party 2 will need to pay maintenance towards DC still living with parent 1. Parents can each claim child benefit for 1 DC each.

So he used to earn £70-120k and supposedly he opted for a paltry VR settlement of £12k? No way - I think he's hiding something there.

Also did you go part time at any point to support the children/family balance/his career? That all counts for your settlement too.

For this redundancy he was only there a couple of years

Yes, was a stay at home mum with no income (but an allowance on the credit card) for 6.5 years, and part time for a couple of years then back to full time when he had another redundancy

Sounds like the home will need to be sold in order to ensure both parties have a roof over their head.

After that there isn’t much in it. The one who has the lowest pension could poss argue for a bigger slice of the house.

m Not sure why the higher earner doesn’t earn high anymore! Are they doing that on purpose?!

Looks like he hasn’t started taking pension yet, so it’s still one very large pot so 50/50 on that as well, which could well be larger than the price of the house.

The higher earner said they wouldn’t be contributing a single penny to party 2 who had the audacity to leave. I should think yes it’s by choice and very much part of the behaviours contributing to the end of the relationship.

50/50 on everything.

Who cares who owns what. You're married and have kids, only 50:50 is fair