Spousal Support

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

hemademesingle

New member
Hi everyone

Heading to Settlement conference, have a quick question

married 21 years, future x makes over $120,000.00 a year, I am on disability, I receive no money from disability because child support is more than what disability would be for a single mom of 2 children,

Future x has offered $1000.00 a month spousal support for 1 year,

I think that that is unreasonable, am I off base?

Thanks
 
Of course he is being unreasonable. Add your age to time of marriage, if it tallies to 65 or over, you fall into the "65 rule" which means he will have to pay you SS indefinitely

So yes that is BS, and won't fly in court. Unlike CS though, you have to prove entitlement to SS. If anything, your ex should be offering close to the median of the time of marriage as a starting point
 
Have you gone to mysupportcalculator.ca and run the numbers? That should give you a range. And that range should be the starting point for negotiations.

One year seems ridiculous. The monthly amount would probably be lower than $1000 because your CS income will be considered in the calc, but the duration should be much longer and possibly indefinite. My ex's is indefinite and we were married 17 years
 
Thanks for the response, I really appreciate it

Yes I have done the MySupportCalculator, and even inputted me an income of $25,000.00, which is higher than my income

The calculator says that I should receive $2500.00, roughly, the calculator that my lawyer uses says $2770.00

I do believe that I qualify for the rule of 65 as I am 48

I just don't want to be unreasonable, I have been trying to get things resolved

I don't want to incur extra legal cost, I have already beaten him in round 1, and was awarded cost

Future x is very high conflict, he has even prevented the kids and I to be able to use the extended health benefits, not that we couldn't use them, just that when I paid he got the refund, so I just stopped using them.

He also likes to threaten, like he is severely in the arrears to CRA, he threatened me that he was going to talk to CRA and have them make me pay half his arrears, I know that is not possible, my son is currently enrolled in the CGA program, wants to become a forensic accountant,
 
I think that that is unreasonable, am I off base?
Click to expand...
Seeking legal counsel would be prudent.

The monthly amount would probably be lower than $1000 because your CS income will be considered in the calc
Click to expand...
This is not quite correct. There are different SSAG for with children and without children.
 
There is only 1 child that support is being paid for, the other has already graduated once from college and is now on to the next step of his education

Future x never paid a dime towards the oldest kids education, all his tuition books travelling expense ( he drove about 30 kms each way to school daily). Every thing was paid for by me, my son, and my mom
 
I am assuming that the $2500 you mention is both SS and CS combined. As Orleans Lawyer mentions, the table changes when you no longer receive child support. Overall you will receive less, but your SS amount will rise.
 
Clearly you have some anger over the lack of support and I understand that. But the law doesn't deal with emotion.

You can try and claim retroactive section 7 expenses for the educational costs, assuming here that they occured after separation, but you would probably want to work with a lawyer on that. And you can try for retroactive CS and SS as well. Depends on your lawyer.
 
Nope $2500.00 is the mid range, just spousal support, child support for the one child is $1300.00, his income is actually $140,000.00 for the main year in question, last year he earned $120,000.00
 
I have no anger, I'm happy he's gone, just really trying to get things resolved, every step of the process has been drug out by 2-6 months,

This has been drug out for 4 years, he gets served he doesn't follow the rules that apply, so my lawyer contacted his lawyer and said we would file default, because he would not provide any financials, to get the ball rolling, gave him another 2 months, no paper work comes, case conference, no shows for his side, I had even sent him a text in the morning reminding him of court, they didn't even notify the court house that no one was coming, so that is probably why I was awarded cost, and the judge orders that his side get the right paper work in we give them another 2 months to do so, it is now 10 months later, and they have still not provided the right financials,

As this next court appearance approaches just wondering what to expect

I don't know if this is usual but in my case, both calculator's have child support at the same, but my lawyers has spousal support at a higher amount,
 
There is no fault in asking for a higher amount, and accepting a lower one, as long as the initial ask isn't ridiculous. Its good to know going in what you will ask for, and what you will accept. He on the other hand is probably low balling his offer, knowing he will accept more. Hopefully you meet at a place where you can agree, but if not thats what courts are for, and the court will look first at the guidelines.
 
Future x has offered $1000.00 a month spousal support for 1 year,

I think that that is unreasonable, am I off base?
Click to expand...

Just from the guidelines that seems extremely unreasonable.

Especially the "1 year" part. Personally, there's no way I would accept that.

Go in with the mid-range support calculator number and duration.

As for him threatening you, its normal and immaterial...he's just trying to blackmail you into accepting something that's unreasonable.
 
Thanks for all the responses, my lawyer is saying for spousal support to be paid for 14 years, that might be because the youngest is due to finish college soon
 
You have really not given enough information to make an assessment for spousal support but I can ask you questions which will prompt likely changes to the figure.

First of all, here are things you should know.

1. I have never met a lawyer yet who could complete a spousal support calculation correctly.

2. Do not use mysupportcalculator.ca. It is a watered down version of Divorcemate's Tools 2K12 which is riddled with errors.

3. They are likely using Divorcemate and I can help you navigate through this disaster of a program.

Here are the questions only you know the answers too..

1. You say you receive no income from disability? This makes no sense. If you are disabled, either you should receive a disability amount from your employer's insurance company or CPP disability or both. No offence but if you are not receiving disability payments, you are not disabled and an income should be imputed to you.

2. Do you receive the disability tax credit? If so, divorcemate should say "disabled" beside your name.

3. If you do receive the disability tax credit, then for every child under 18, you receive a monthly non taxable amount for the children (this needs to be accounted for and likely lawyers have not done this)

4. You say he has benefits. Does he pay for any of these benefits? If so, this is a deduction for him on the calculator and almost always lawyers do not enter it or enter it in the wrong place.

5. You say his income is 120,000 then 140,000. Did he get a promotion? Is he an employee or self employed? There could be issues with stock options or restricted stock which he is receiving which could cause a fluctuation in income.

Those would be my starter questions.

Bitterness and anger in one party are almost always caused by lawyer incompetence and criminal activity.

Without complete information, I can't say what his spousal support obligation would be but likely 2,500 per month is way too high.

If you see on your spousal support calculation that all the lawyer has done is enter your income and his, 100% it is done wrong.

There are so many factors to take into account and lawyers simply do not have the intellect to do it.

Find yourself a professional accountant who can analyze financial documents properly. I am one but there are others like me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top