I'm so worried and stressed now with doing.....

A night full off reading bout a final hearing Procedure I'm surely feeling so low at the moment.

OK so I'm so ill awaiting final hearing but I thought it would be simple argument of settlement put to bed goodbye.

Not a whole process of stress!

Here's my story

I left rented council home 2011

Wife petitioned divorce 2012 legal aid

I signed too get rid!

Years went on by with no word or talk of divorce proceedings taking place.

I waited till 5 years separated and opted in to paying £550 to get the ball rolling my end with new divorce proceedings.

She ignored the letter and went back to a new solicitor claiming that she felt so depressed and strained she couldn't proceed further but is now willing to go forward with her divorce.

Filled in the forms etc gone to first app etc now waiting for fh.

Wife 53 - doesn't work claims benefits of £7500 a year, has a car(didn't mention in assets), still lives in 3 bedroom council house, our 3 children have moved out and are all over 21, claims she can not work due to illness never proved though as according to her it was because of my physical abuse during marriage, so she gets her rent paid for her, council tax,etc... No pension or assets as she stated I said she can live off my pension its fine. (who in their right mind would say that! Not me!)

Me 52- I work full time and earn roughly £400 a week after tax, I live with my partner and our two children who are under 5 in a council property I pay all the rent of £460 a month and all the food £450 a month and all the bill etc I have a few debts equaling up to £3000, I dont drive and my only asset is my pension which stood at £135000 july 2017, the pension in my company is in threat and may not be there by the time I retire. My wage has gone down this year also.

OK so on the last hearing the judge stated that because we have been separated for a 1/4 of the marriage I automatically obtain 25% of the 100% available. Which leaves 75% to share and she could be entitled to 37.5% or less.

Q* as the judge stated this will this follow through in the final hearing?

My Stbew put in an offer of 65% to her and 35% to me - the judge wasn't happy with this and told her that her solicitor was being too steep!

I offered 20% of the 75% available and she declined that and counter offered that she would like to make a settlement of 54% to her and 46% to me off the full 100% of the pot.

I counter offered to 25% of the 75% available and told her this would be the last offer I will make. She e declined and agreed to go to court.

Just to add... She has a solicitor... I self represent as I can not afford legal fees.

She was the first petitioner and followed with her petition and now this is where we are now.

Q. What will happen at the fh?
Q. What do I need to do to prepare myself?
Q. Does that 25% still go in my favour?
Q. She also wants me to pay for her fees but she got hers on legal aid back then and I already have paid for divorce proceedings that she never responded to, what happens with that?

Please see my answer to your other thread.

As there are no other assets to offset your pension, a pension share is the only course open to you.

A 37.5% pension share would give a pension pot of around 50k. Changes in pension legislation mean she may be able to take this as a lump sum (subject to tax) at 55. There will be costs associated with sharing the pension. It is worth checking with the scheme what those costs could be as well as whether a pension share is possible within the scheme (she gets a pension in her own right) or if hard cash needs to be transferred into a private pension arrangement.

Bear in mind your own pension will continue to build up after the pension share.

If the company/scheme is looking dodgy, you may want to take advice about whether you could/should move your fund away from the scheme.

Hadenoughnow

Hi thanks for replying.

Ive stopped paying into my pension as my finances at home have changed considerably and I can not afford to pay anymore.

I was earing £40000 and last year lost £8000 I took home £32000

I've also lost hours at work and with my yougnest needing to go to nursery when he's 2 my finances are out of control, I've also had to take out loans to cover the cost of my financial commitment to my children since I filled out the form E

So with my pension not growing in fund from myself anymore and at my retirement age I will have 1 child under 16 and 1 under 18, I can not afford to loose all or half of my pension.

I just want this over with now but feel financial strain as it seems like she wants to kill me off and leave me with nothing!

I don't mind sharing some as I have tried to with the 20 and 25%.

I also feel now I've been mislead by the previous judge in hoping I keep 25% of my pension.

Thank you for your help I hope you can help me more of what happens next with the information I have stated above of my financial circumstances decreasing rapidly.

You should be updating the financial disclosure in advance of any final hearing - but, as I said, the pension share relates to a share of the assets of the marriage. Your current commitments post date the marriage and the court would not expect your ex wife to be penalised for choices you have made.

You will get a different judge at the Final Hearing - and they may take a different view of the pension to be split. I would hope not but you have to be prepared for that eventuality. Bear in mind it is the current fund that is under consideration - any future payments into the pension will be for your sole benefit.

Sorry if that sounds harsh but that is how it is. It is worth either going to the CAB or trying entitledto.com to check you are claiming all the financial support that you can.

Hadenoughnow

I understand what you have a said. Feel like I'm being penalised for the one working all my life and building financial security for myself when I retire, which my wife thought she wouldn't do through our marriage. I suppose Ive been conned.

Thank you for you help it's been very helpful.

Unfortantly we are not entitled to any help from the benefits.

Moving forward I will just have to wait and pleed that this judge follows the same decision with the separation for 7 years.

How do I inform the courts of my changes?

Is this not the process of the final hearing?

Thanks

If your ex is fully represented, she is going to be spending £1000s on legal fees. Final Hearing are very expensive.

What you could do is think about making an Open Offer. This would be seen by the judge at Final Hearing.

You should write to her solicitor saying that, following the FDR, you wish to make an Open Offer to settle in order to save the costs involved in a Final Hearing.

In making this offer you are taking account of the fact that you have been separated for seven years and that there are no other assets of the marriage (assuming that is so) save for your pension fund which has been accrued over xx years of working life.

Keep the offer simple. I am prepared to offer your client a pension share of XX%. Costs of pension sharing should be borne by your client.

end with something like: This offer will remain open for XX days. Please respond or counter offer within this time frame or consider the offer withdrawn.


NB I think you will need to up your offer. 50% of 75% of the pot = 37.5% of the whole pot. The judge at FDR was clear this would be what was needed to settle. So perhaps you could offer 25- 30% of the whole fund at this stage - but be prepared to go up to 35% if necessary. You will also need to deal with how the costs of any pension sharing order would be handled - ideally check with your scheme trustees to find out what they would be. It would be reasonable, in the first instance to suggest she pays the costs of the pension share - but you may end up having to split them between you.

NB Her "share" if she gets 50% of 75% = just over 50k. 35% would be just over £3k less. (1% = 1,350 of pension). 25% would be nearly 17k less. It is a question of balancing the offer against her likely legal costs (other may have a better idea but I doubt they would be less than 5k) . FDR is usually a good steer for what will happen at FH.



Hadenoughnow










.