Spousal Maintenance - drops by £1 for every £2 earned

[Bobsmyaunty]

Does anyone have any idea how this works?

My ex husband (separated - trying to agree divorce) wants to include this. I can find no reference to it online anywhere so not sure how it works!

There is no set system for Spousal Maintenance, though hopefully some on here can suggest things that have been agreed by others.

In principle, his proposal shows he is wanting to support you while you increase your earnings, with his contribution eventually sliding to zero if you earn sufficient money (how much would depend on the starting point of his payments). In theory this sounds fair?

Get legal advice. Maybe it should drop to a nominal amount but getting it automatically dismissed when you earn double the spouse maintenance would be a no-no.

That sounds odd unless he is a ridiculously high earner. Even if he was so rich as to be told to give you £1K a month you'd not get anything by the time you earned only £24K a year, which would be ridiculous considering the disparity to the wage he must be earning to be told to give you that.

Could you look at doing that once you reach a certain wage? E.g. first £25K a year doesn't count then the scale comes in so in the situation above he'd no longer pay once you earned more like £45K a year - scaling that to whatever matches his finances better.

I appreciate the principle that he shouldn't need to support you as much the more you earn, and it does provide incentive to maximise your earnings by reducing 50p per £1 (i imagine he got this from the way UC works), but still need to make sure it's fair to you and scales to an amount that makes sure you and any kids are reasonably provided for.

Thank you!

Yes, it's from the amount I earn now. So, as I earn each £2 more, SM reduces by £1.

SIGH. I'm starting to wonder if this is the only way to do it. It would just be so nice to have a LITTLE bit of slack in the budget so I could maybe save something for if my contract isn't renewed or my car dies etc.

It's just so galling that after ten years I am back working hard at entry level jobs and he's flying off on these amazing holidays with the kids / big trips out to Legoland & Harry Potter World etc. When - actually - when I met him I was in a really solid career.

I think there's no actual compensation for that. And perhaps it's impossible to accommodate & I need to accept that the current societal structures never reward emotional labour and just get over it.

You should be getting a fair portion of assets (not necessarily only 50% either due to difference in earning potential) including his pension etc.

If you're concerned about contract would he be open to wording that allows it to go back up if your earnings dip again? What does your lawyer advise?

I'd also think carefully. I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure after a year or two he can just stop paying and you'll have to take him back to court to enforce the order and he could get it reduced or even stopped at that time if he argues your needs or his ability to pay has gone down. If you're taking spousal maintenance over assets in a clean break consider the risks of that carefully with your lawyer.

Have you had proper legal advice?
I thought SM was unusual in the UK these days unless a lengthy marriage?

I have SM. Divorced last year.

I know lots of people who get spousal maintenance. None of them have this in the agreement, but it doesn't sound that unfair as long as you're getting a decent amount.

I wouldn't be happy with an ex knowing the intricate details of my finances though, so maybe it updates every 12 months to the nearest thousand?

If you were in a solid career, can you get back to that? The sliding scale may well to be to reflect “earning potential”

You can link it the other way as well. My OH has a SM agreement and he has give his financial info each year, and amend the SM amount by the lower of (a) his pay rise or (b) rpi.

Thanks everyone - I spoke to a solicitor who said it's just not a thing that's used anymore. So I think we'll look at capitalising spousal maintenance as our discussions are too hard and we don't want to have them every year.