Blogs

During these unprecedented times, unfortunately, many people are finding themselves either being ‘Furloughed’ by their employer or losing their job altogether. Suddenly, many families have been thrown into financial uncertainty with little guidance on how to manage or cope. So, what if you have reached an informal agreement with your ex-spouse to pay maintenance or if there is a Court Order in place regulating the payments? Can you just stop the payments, or can you reduce the level of payments unilaterally? Well, it will depend on the kind of agreement you have with your spouse/ ex-spouse.

It should be noted that there is a difference between spousal maintenance and child maintenance. A ‘non resident parent’ (the parent who does not have his or her child(rent) living with them) will be required to pay the minimum child maintenance amount as calculated by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). If your circumstances have changed, you should visit the Government website relating to child maintenance or contact the CMS on 0800 083 4375 to check the minimum payment required.

With regard to spousal maintenance, if you and your spouse have not yet begun divorce proceedings or if the proceedings have not yet been finalised, it may be that you have reached an informal agreement. In this scenario, technically you are under no obligation to continue payments at the current level. However, if you suddenly reduce the payments or you stop paying altogether, it is entirely open to your spouse to apply to the Court for an emergency hearing to ask the Court for an Order to deal with interim maintenance, including the level of the payments. It is therefore not advisable to simply stop or reduce payments and you should always try and reach an agreement with your spouse in the first instance. If you find yourself in this position, you should seek legal advice before taking any steps to reduce or stop payments.

Alternatively, the divorce and financial matters may have already been finalised and you may have a Court Order regulating the level of payments and for how long the payments must be made. In this scenario, you will need to continue making the payments in line with the Court Order and if you fail to pay, the payments will fall into arrears and you will be in breach of a Court Order. If you fail to meet the payments, your spouse could issue an application to the Court for enforcement which, if they are successful in claiming any arrears and/or the Court decides you need to continue the payments at the current level, you may be faced with a further Order requiring you to meet your spouse’s legal costs as well as your own. Clearly this is not an ideal situation. Therefore if you find yourself in financial difficulty and you are no longer able to meet the payments, a formal application to the Court will need to be made with a request that the payments are either reduced or terminated altogether. We would also encourage parties to try to agree on matters before applying to the Court but even if you agree, a formal application to vary the previous Court Order will still need to be made. Before reducing any payments or making any applications to the Court, you should seek specialist legal advice as each case will be decided on its own facts and will depend on all the circumstances.

Contact our Family Solicitors

We can offer expert advice on maintenance payments whether you are the person making the payments or you are the person receiving the payments. Contact one of our family law solicitors today or fill out our online enquiry form.