Unemployed ex-spouse

[treegirl]

My ex-spouse has been unemployed since May of this year (6 months) and his severance/accrued vacation has depleted, however, he does collect unemployment. He is motioning to renounce payment for alimony & child support until he gets a job.

Background - we were married for 20 yrs, have two children (Son 16 lives with him and Daughter 11 lives with me), and over those twenty years he drove us into financial ruin. We have nothing – no house, he took out three loans over time and in selling the house, for $425k mind you, all loans and debts were paid and we split a ‘whopping’ $8k. We both split $120.00 in debt. The job he held paid him $150,000+/annual for that last 8 years. He worked at this same company for 22 years and moved up from mgmt to owner (VP) and then over three years of ownership hit hard times, company nearly went under, he sold it and was eventually laid off by the new owners. I have been employed steadily but making only less than half of what he made. I have maintained my employment, while he is unemployed, and to take on healthcare for my children as well as maintain my own lifestyle with my daughter. The custody with kids is that they are together every weekend, with one parent every other weekend.

How can this be that he can get away with not paying alimony & child support, and I’m appalled to learn the he could turn things around and I could end up paying him? Help me understand this… please!

[aaron]

If he is not making an adequate effort to obtain suitable employment, you can ask that the court impute a higher income to him - that is, base support upon his earning capacity, not just upon the benefits he is presently receiving. You may wish to obtain assistance from a family lawyer.