In our weekly series, readers can email any questions about their finances to be answered by our expert, Rosie Hooper. Rosie is a chartered financial planner at Quilter Cheviot and has worked in financial services for 25 years. If you have a question for her, email us at money@inews.co.uk.
Question: My divorce was finalised over six years ago. The financial order stated that when our youngest child turned 14, my spousal maintenance would reduce significantly on the assumption that I would then be able to work full-time. I have already been working full-time for the past three years on a minimum-wage income, and the rising cost of living means I am now struggling to sustain the costs. I have been advised to release equity or move to an interest-only mortgage, but neither is possible due to my age and income, leaving a monthly shortfall of around £1,500.
Downsizing is difficult while the children still live at home. My home is worth £450,000 and I have £202,000 left on the mortgage. How do people manage financially when maintenance payments reduce or stop but significant housing costs remain? The financial reality of divorce is now causing considerable stress, and I would welcome practical guidance.
Answer: Thank you for writing in. What you are describing is sadly very common: the financial assumptions made at the point of divorce often don’t match the reality of raising children alone during a period of high housing costs and stubbornly expensive everyday living.
On paper, the idea that you would be able to work full-time by the time your youngest turned 14 might have looked reasonable. In reality, you have been doing exactly that for several years already, on a minimum wage income, while carrying all the costs and responsibilities of running a household. The reduction in maintenance simply exposes how tight the numbers already were.
Your situation also has an extra layer of difficulty because, as you explained in your longer email to me, the settlement tied you to a particular area. Staying put helped maintain stability for your children, but it also limited your ability to move somewhere more affordable. When a financial order doesn’t anticipate the cost of living rising as sharply as it has, it can leave people like you feeling squeezed from all sides.
There are a few areas worth thinking through.
The first is affordability. Your home has significant equity, but that doesn’t help if you can’t access it through remortgaging or downsizing right now. Lenders do look closely at income and term length for borrowers in mid-life, so it’s not surprising that interest-only or equity release options are proving difficult.
However, some specialist lenders take a more flexible view than the high street, especially where there is strong equity behind the loan. A whole-of-market broker may be able to test whether you really have reached the end of the road on this front.
The second thing to consider is your income. You are already working full-time, but if you are earning minimum wage, then you may be entitled to state support even while working.
Many people are unaware that universal credit can top up the income of working households, especially where there are dependent children. This is worth checking, because even a modest monthly top-up could ease some of the pressure.
It is also worth checking whether you are claiming the full range of help available to people with children in education. Child benefit, free school meals depending on circumstances, and support with travel or sixth-form costs can all add up. None of these solves the core mortgage issue, but they do help to narrow the shortfall.
The third area is the spousal maintenance itself. These arrangements are typically not set in stone forever. A significant and sustained change in circumstances can justify applying to vary the order.
The test is whether the original assumptions have proved unrealistic. In your case, the court assumed that moving to full-time work would significantly lift your income, but the jobs available to you have not matched that expectation.
That doesn’t automatically guarantee a successful variation, but it is not unreasonable to revisit the numbers, especially when inflation was so high in 2022-23.
A solicitor who specialises in family law can tell you whether your situation meets the threshold for a variation and what evidence you would need. Even if you prefer not to go down that route, sometimes a conversation between solicitors can lead to an agreed adjustment that avoids court altogether.
Finally, although it may not be what you want to hear, you will almost certainly have more options once the children leave home. Downsizing is often the most sustainable long-term solution for single parents who have been anchored to a family home during their children’s schooling years. The good news is that your equity position is strong, and once you are free to consider a move, it should give you far more breathing space.
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For now, the sensible path is to explore every avenue: benefit entitlements, specialist mortgage advice, and a possible variation of the maintenance order. None of these are quick fixes, but taken together, they can help you bridge the years until your housing choices widen.
You have clearly been doing everything you can, and none of this is a reflection of poor planning on your part.
The strain you’re feeling is the result of a system that often expects single parents to absorb rising costs without acknowledging the limits of income growth. With some targeted advice, you should be able to find a way through the next chapter with less financial anxiety.
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