Can spouse's earnings be taken into account for maintenance?

theoldbreed

Hi all,
Posting this for my colleague. She is married to a guy with a son. He and ex had private agreement re maintenance. Now ex is taking him to court for maintenance as she said she can get more now that he is married (they got married in October).
I don't know for sure but I assumed the spouse's earnings cannot be taken into account, it wasn't in the case of my partner anyway . Can anyone clarify this?
Thank you.

Jamaican Me Crazy

The spouses income cannot be taken into consideration but his own expenses could be seen to be less now that they are shared with another person so for arguments sake say he was renting an apartment himself at a cost of €500 per month and now his wife is paying half the rent so the cost to him is now €250 and this basic logic applies to utilities etc. He appears to have more disposable income. He will have to complete a form outlining all of his income and outgoings and the judge will take a view on it.

wokingvoter

Jamaican Me Crazy wrote: »

The spouses income cannot be taken into consideration but his own expenses could be seen to be less now that they are shared with another person so for arguments sake say he was renting an apartment himself at a cost of €500 per month and now his wife is paying half the rent so the cost to him is now €250 and this basic logic applies to utilities etc. He appears to have more disposable income. He will have to complete a form outlining all of his income and outgoings and the judge will take a view on it.

This is the first time this has been explained clearly to me! Thank you!

barman linen

My experience is that the spouse's income is certainly taken into account in terms of overall funds available.

In my experience when I protested to a Judge that I could not pay the amount he had ordered ( 2x my weekly SW income ) against me his answer was 'no - but your partner can'. I had a very high order against me due to a decent salary that disappeared in a redundancy situation. Judges are very reluctant to reduce an existing order - regardless of change in circumstances. I have had this with 3 different judges so can speak from a degree of experience.

At the risk of being flamed there is no 'fairness' in a family law court when the waterworks or sob stories come on.

Your comments that the Ex 'can get more' sounds very familiar - not that she might have 'more expense' - just that she can 'get' more.

Be very careful completing the means assessment.

Jamaican Me Crazy

barman linen wrote: »

My experience is that the spouse's income is certainly taken into account in terms of overall funds available.

In my experience when I protested to a Judge that I could not pay the amount he had ordered ( 2x my weekly SW income ) against me his answer was 'no - but your partner can'. I had a very high order against me due to a decent salary that disappeared in a redundancy situation. Judges are very reluctant to reduce an existing order - regardless of change in circumstances. I have had this with 3 different judges so can speak from a degree of experience.

At the risk of being flamed there is no 'fairness' in a family law court when the waterworks or sob stories come on.

Your comments that the Ex 'can get more' sounds very familiar - not that she might have 'more expense' - just that she can 'get' more.

Be very careful completing the means assessment.

If a judge said this to you, you would surely have grounds to appeal.

I seem to be an oddity in that I am in no way motivated by money and if my childs father wants to nitpick over the pittance he is ordered to pay, then don't pay it. I earn enough to cover the childs costs.
My partners income has never come in to it in court nor has the income of any partner my ex had. In fact, I would never even bring up something like that. I wouldn't expect another person to pay maintenance for our child. Different judges, different courts and partners never came in to it, and nor should they.

Right enough though - include everything on the statement of means and be careful with it. There is definitely a mentality of 'getting more' out there and do seek a detailed breakdown of the childs expenses. The amount my ex is ordered to pay covers 1/3 of my childs creche on a weekly basis and nothing towards food, clothes, extracurricular activities, medical, dental, glasses etc etc and we earn similar amounts. How's that for fair

barman linen

Jamaican Me Crazy wrote: »

If a judge said this to you, you would surely have grounds to appeal.

This was a District Court Judge and we were involved in a parallel Divorce proceeding in the Circuit Court. The CC Judge was only interested in satisfying the order of her learned friend - nothing to do with ACTUAL circumstances.

I applaud you ( Jamaican ) on your approach - my experience was totally different and nascent greed was supported by our learned(!) friends.

The Courts in my experience want to move these issues along without significant moves in any direction. If an order is in place then they tend to waver only marginally from that order - even if there is a drastic change in circumstances.