LG Case Study

A mother of two young girls has been left with legal bills of more than £9,000 after pursuing her ex-husband for maintenance payments. So bad was the stress caused by the situation that she suffered a severe panic attack and ended up in hospital.

When she divorced her husband of five years, after their 11-year relationship broke down, she took on the caring responsibility for their children. With a consent order in place, the woman had no reason to think that her ex-husband would fail to deliver the agreed £740 a month that she vitally needed to care for her children. She explained: "The split was amicable and I never dreamed that he would default on the payments, but he did - less than a year after we split up. He had met someone on-line and said he now had another family to support."

The woman works full time in sales for a financial services company and has childcare bills of between £600 and £800 every month. She says here ex knew how much money she needed for childcare and the hardship she would face without his help.

"I could have gone to the Child Support Agency for help but I knew they would only try to get £460 a month for me going forward and not collecting any arrears and that wasn't enough to pay the childcare and cover the children's expenses. Although my salary is good, there is little left once I've paid for some of the childcare myself, the rent, utility bills as well as food and clothing for the girls and myself. So, I decided to take legal action to make him pay the arrears and start paying the £740 a month again, until he applied for a reduction the correct way," she said.

She instructed a solicitor to start the process of taking her ex-husband to court but he refused to get engaged with the proceedings and returned the papers 'not known at this address'. It wasn't until she had the papers served on him that he finally took notice.

"Taking legal action was extremely expensive and I had to use my credit cards to pay the solicitor, but I was absolutely determined to get him to pay the arrears. The case should never have gone to trial but it was the principle and I couldn't let him get away with it".

An attachment of earnings was granted by the court and the woman was paid the £740 per month until the reduction was agreed at trial some months later. She is now paid just £460 a month. Her ex-husband was also forced to pay the arrears but, unfortunately, she was left with legal fees to pay.

Huge legal bills and significantly reduced maintenance were not the only consequences of her struggle for justice. Her health has also suffered.

She says: "There were emotional effects from the situation and, worst of all, his relationship with the girls pretty much ceased."

She said that her girls were badly affected by the situation too. Her ex wouldn't even answer the phone when his daughters tried to ring him, and it all had a detrimental effect on both the children who had started new schools in a different area. Father's day was particularly heartbreaking for the girls when their father failed to pick them up for a promised weekend away.

Henry Glasse, Managing Director of Maintenance Assist, says that this woman's case is all too common and illustrates why it is essential for maintenance to be protected.

"Unfortunately, because she had already experienced default in her maintenance payments we were unable to offer cover. Had she taken out the policy as soon as the consent order was in place her legal costs would have been covered and she wouldn't have ended up in debt."

Gail Case Study

Gail was married for 18 years before her divorce went through in 2009. She had just turned 41 and hadn't dreamt that she would have to start a new life after 18 years of marriage.

Fortunately, Gail did not have to go to court and a consent order was arranged by a solicitor. Maintenance payments were agreed for her and her two teenage sons,

Gail, now 42, realised that even with a consent order she and her sons were still financially vulnerable and knew she had to take control. Maintenance Assist offered the security she was looking for and Gail decided to take out a policy because she "couldn't afford to be without the maintenance payments".

The couple have managed to stay amicable during the divorce process, for the sake of their boys, and so far there have been no problems with the maintenance payments. Gail, however, admits that she felt very nervous about the future prior to taking out maintenance protection. She explained: "My ex-husband has had a lot of different jobs in the past and I wanted peace of mind in case he is made redundant - especially in this market. Also, I wanted the insurance because I know I won't qualify for legal aid."

"I'm from an insurance background so I recognise the benefits of insurance and the £21 a month I pay is giving me peace of mind. This is one type of insurance I really hope I won't have to use but it's there if I need it and it's my safety net."

Gail, who works 30 hours a week relies on the maintenance income to cover her mortgage while her salary goes on utility bills, food and clothing for her and her boys.

"Working in the insurance industry I knew there must be a company out there that offered maintenance payment protection so I searched on the web and luckily found Maintenance Assist".

"When you are a single mum with several kids it's very hard to make ends meet and paying out £21 a month is a big decision, but I had to look at the bigger picture. The bottom line is that if I don't get the maintenance payments we will lose our home. I think some women look at the premium and can't see past the fact that £21 could help towards food bills or heating".

Henry Glasse, Managing Director of Maintenance Assist, added: "In the current economic climate many women are worried about their former partner's job security. What many don't realise is that even if there is a consent order in place there is no guarantee that the payments will be made. Gail has done the right thing. She can now rest easy in the knowledge that her mortgage payments have been made much more secure".

Jane Case Study

Jane's problems with child maintenance caused her so much stress that she came close to having a nervous breakdown.

Her world turned upside down 16 years ago when, aged 40 and with three children, Jane's marriage unexpectedly came to an end. Her youngest child was just five years old.

She explained: "We lost our family home due to my husband's business failing and the house being up for repossession. We managed to sell the house before it was re-possessed and I was supposed to receive some the sale proceeds to house the children but I didn't. So I moved from our beautiful, five bedroom coaching house to a tiny cottage and had the embarrassment of applying for housing benefit. I had no money or savings of my own and hadn't worked for 12 years. Over the next 11 years, we moved house five times as each house we rented was sold from underneath us.

"How do you bring up a family on so little money? Well with difficulty! I became a house cleaner, a barmaid, a waitress, a shift manager at a sports club and all the time my focus was on making sure I could feed the children and pay the bills."

Her first priority was to secure a good education for her children and, once this was in place, she started to fight for maintenance payments from her ex-husband. This journey involved her fighting two court cases and spending thousands of pounds on legal fees.

Her marriage was over in 1993 but, despite a consent order, she has never received any regular child maintenance. Her husband consistently claimed that he didn't have any money and managed to convince the judges he was broke. Maintenance payments were kept open at 5p per year! The woman ended up taking her ex-husband to court three times over a ten year period. She knew he did have money as he was taking regular holidays.

It wasn't until the year 2000 that Jane's ex husband said he would give her some money.

"He was a shadow director of a company which was doing well and he said he wanted a clean break. He offered me £500 under a deed. He then stopped paying and I decided to employ a barrister at a cost of £3,000 for which I had to take out a loan," she explained. The saga continued when her ex-husband offered to pay for their 11 year old son's school fees. Before she knew it, he had defaulted on the school fees and Jane had the embarrassment of having a friend paying the fees.

Asked why she thinks her husband behaved so unfairly, Jane said: "He was selfish and self centred and he wanted me to fall apart. He thought he was punishing me by taking it out on the children and he didn't see the long-term effects. Now the children don't see him and he has no real relationship with the kids because of how he's treated us. I've been left with no security and no pension."

Henry Glasse, Managing Director of Maintenance Assist, said: "Suddenly becoming a single parent reliant on maintenance is a scary position to be in. A consent order is all very well, but not a guarantee and the only way to secure this income is to protect it. If not, the individual's finances remain in the control of the former partner."