Spousal Support After Unemployment Runs Out

[das1000me]

My question involves a marriage in the state of: Pennsylvania.

Good day! Despite submitting hundreds of job applications, several nibbles interview-wise, and one offer to start work on May 21st that was rescinded, I have been unemployed for two years. With that said, one knows that my unemployment comp has run out. I have been married for eight years this August (we lived together for three years before then). My husband, who becomes quite verbally abusive when he drinks, gets Social Security Disability and an insurance check once a month. Out of these two checks, he gives me money to pay the bills and buy food. The rest he spends amongst his friends. Yesterday, he came in and started acting "funny." I suspect he had some drug. When he awoke several hours later, he denied taking any drugs and proceeded to accuse me of being crazy. Needless to say, we argued. When I tried to explain our (his) financial situation and asked why he would prefer to drink and take drugs - all while in bad health - he told me to (please excuse this) "Go sell some pu**y!" This was a first, and a horrible shock to me. Later, one of his bromances called and he said "I'll be there in a little while 'cause I gotta get out of here for awhile." That was 8:30 p.m. last night and at 5:38 p.m. today he is still not home. I don't particularly care what he's doing. After taking so much verbal abuse from him, and losing almost all of my respect for him, my thoughts are on getting away from him and resuming some semblance of the life I used to have prior to him - piece of mind, a piece of a car, a half-way decent job, etc. He is 62 years old, despite his reckless lifestyle (that he knows full well I do not approve of for myself or anyone in my life) and actions, and I will be 54 on July 28th. I'm sick of his immaturity and him taunting me at will because he knows I have no income to enable myself to leave. Stress from being highly-experienced and highly-skilled yet unemployed, coupled with constantly trying to deal with his irrational behavior, has led me to drastic weight- and hair-loss!

Question (finally): Do I qualify for any type of spousal support and, if so, must I first file for divorce?

Thanks in advance for any info.

[Foster_Foster]

Quite a lot (in fact too much) extraneous detail there.

Yes, you'd need to file for a divorce or formal separation (assuming they have the latter mechanism in your state, which I didn't keep track of) to seek spousal support. No reason to think you wouldn't get a little bit of at least temporary support pending the divorce, but I dare say unless he has plenty of extraneous assets, you won't get enough to cover the bills, so ... not sure whether you can stay with friends/other family.

[das1000me]

Foster_Foster,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for the detail, I just wanted to give a well-rounded view of my personal H*ll at present

I asked the question because I thought SSDisability payments were "untouchable." They were a zillion years ago when a cousin tried to get child support payments from her son's disabled father.