ex wont pay maintainance

My ex husband refuses to pay maintainance for his 2 children, the marital home was sold and the mortgage, bills etc paid off so im in rented accomodation, with no money (made redundant 2 yrs ago) how on earth do i get rent allowance? and how can i get the courts to get him to cough up? he received over 30k in dedundancy himself but has cleverly lodged it to someone elses bank account. he receives rent allowance for a 4 bed house from the HSE even though he has pots of money. any advice?

I think you're on the wrong forum. If you are looking for information on what your social welfare entitlements then please say and give us details of your income/work pattern so that people can advise if you have any entitlements that you're not getting.

If you are only looking for information on how to get money from your husband, then you should be on the legal forum.

There are quite a few issues here.

If you want maintenance you need to hire a solicitor, if you can't afford one you may be entitled to legal aid but there are probably delays in this.

If you ex is on the dole and has no assets it may not be worth your while applying for maintenance.

If you ex is hiding money from social welfare then you can report him though I imagine that will cause ructions.

You mention he was made redundant and received a lump sum. 30K is not pots of money. When one is made redudant and has paid social welfare contributions one is entitled to the dole no matter how wealthy one is. After that ends he will be entitled based on his means. For this certain assets and lump sums are disregarded. If he is getting rent for a 4 bed house than he presumable is living with more than one person, new partner and children. All of this will have been assessed by social welfare/HSE etc.

To your question on how to get rent allowance, you apply for it as a first step from social welfare and see what they say.

natasha said:

hi there, could someone please advise. my ex husband refuses to pay maintainance for his 2 children, the marital home was sold and the mortgage, bills etc paid off so im in rented accomodation, with no money (made redundant 2 yrs ago)how on earth do i get rent allowance? and how can i get the courts to get him to cough up? he received over 30k in dedundancy himself but has cleverly lodged it to someone elses bank account. he receives rent allowance for a 4 bed house from the HSE even though he has pots of money. any advice?

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Presumably as you refer to your "ex-husband" the divorce included reference to maintenance issues?
Did the divorce require the selling of the marital home?

Bronte said:

If you ex is on the dole and has no assets it may not be worth your while applying for maintenance.

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If you are in receipt of OPFP then you will be expected to make efforts to get the maintenance.

To your question on how to get rent allowance, you apply for it as a first step from social welfare and see what they say.

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The first step in rent supplement applications is to ensure that you either:

1. Have been in rented accommodation for the previous 6 months, AND could reasonably have afforded the rent at the start of the tenancy

or

2. Be assessed as in need of housing by your local authority.

To keep yourself right you should apply to be assessed by your local authority as a matter of urgency.


Are you working at all? If so, how many hours, and how much do you receive? Are you in receipt of a Social Welfare payment already?

OP - go onto rollercoaster.ie discussions and look up info there or post queries. There is an area for separated/divorced persons. you don't need to have a solicitor to put in for maintenance. You will find a lot of good advice and support on that site.

Ildánach said:

If you are in receipt of OPFP then you will be expected to make efforts to get the maintenance.

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This doesn't make sense, surely someone on a social welfare payment would not be ordered to pay any of it as maintenance? It being the basic minimum to live on itself?

The point that Ildánach was making is that if the OP is applying for or in receipt of One Parent Family payment, they are expected to look for maintenance from the other party. Depending on the circumstances of the other party, no maintenance might be awarded.

I think it is highly unlikely no maintenance would be awarded. Even those with no income other than sw are expected by the Courts to support their children.
It's not clear op if you have a maintenance order which is being ignored, or there is no order in place.
In any case it is entirely unacceptable, and you need to take action. You should contact treoir for advice.

gipimann said:

The point that Ildánach was making is that if the OP is applying for or in receipt of One Parent Family payment, they are expected to look for maintenance from the other party. Depending on the circumstances of the other party, no maintenance might be awarded.

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Isn't that a silly rule where both parties are on social welfare only? Surely judges don't award maintenance in those cases? Presumably if it's a social welfare requirement one party has to go to legal aid at a cost to the tax payer and go to court again at tax payers expense to get an order for zero to satisfy social welfare and presumable the costs of the other party will also be through legal aid at tax payers costs.

Where one party has means and is refusing to pay I can well understand.

If you want maintenance you need to hire a solicitor,

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You don't need a Solicitor to apply for child maintenance, it's quite easy to do yourself. Contact your nearest district court and ask the court clerk for the forms to be completed; they can't give you legal advice, naturally, but you will find them very helpful.

Your former husband has a legal obligation to support his children and can therefore claim the dependents allowance for the children if he is claiming social welfare - this isn't widely advertised. That allowance can be paid as child maintenance while he isn't working.

What I don't understand however is how you got a judicial separation or divorce without these issues being dealt with by the court granting said JS/Divorce?

Bronte said:

Isn't that a silly rule where both parties are on social welfare only? Surely judges don't award maintenance in those cases? Presumably if it's a social welfare requirement one party has to go to legal aid at a cost to the tax payer and go to court again at tax payers expense to get an order for zero to satisfy social welfare and presumable the costs of the other party will also be through legal aid at tax payers costs.

Where one party has means and is refusing to pay I can well understand.

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What if one party is on Social Welfare but has considerable savings? Not all social welfare payments are means-tested so there could be other income/savings/property, which may allow for some maintenance payment.

That's a good point gipimann, hadn't thought of that. But what about where it's full dole and social welfare has already the files indicated say the husband has no assets, do they still make the wife apply for maintenance?