Can Men Get Spousal Support From Their Ex-wives?
Spousal support is an amount of money that one former spouse pays the other on a monthly, weekly or biweekly basis. Although the courts will consider various criteria when they are deciding on whether to administer spousal support, the gender of the spouse requesting the support is not one of those criteria.
Spousal support has more to do with the income of both of the spouses, and the lower income spouse’s ability to stay afloat after a divorce. This type of support may be configured based on some guidelines set forth in the advisory guidelines.
Can Men Get Spousal Support From Their Ex-Wives in Canada?
In Canada, the discretion of awarding spousal support is left to the judge. He or she can decide if there is a need for such relief. The judge will not consider whether the party is male or female. Instead, this person will consider factors such as whether the spouse requesting the support can survive without the help.
A person who earns $100 per week would not be presumed financially stable enough to pay a $1,200 mortgage after a divorce without assistance. Therefore, a man who is unemployed or works for low income may be eligible for assistance.
Other Factors Considered
The judge will also consider the usual lifestyle of both the parties. If a male spouse is accustomed to having his female spouse pay all the household bills, then it may be unjust to assume that person can survive financially without help for a brief period. However, the judge will also consider the other spouse’s ability to pay the spousal support. He or she will review the person’s income and decide a monetary amount if spousal support payments are approved.
Length of Marriage
The issuing judge will consider the length of the marriage that the parties had. He or she may decide to order spousal support for a term equal to half the length of the marriage. An alternative judgment may be for two to three years, which is enough time for the spouse to find additional sources of income.
Spousal support will definitely end upon the death of the paying spouse. However, there are no clear-cut laws in Canada about the duration of such maintenance payments for living spouses. The judge has the final say in that issue.
To get a clear picture of how the spousal support process works, it is advisable for a spouse to make an appointment with a reliable family law firm. The firm will be able to give a definitive answer to “Can men get spousal support?”, and it will be able to help the client collect.
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