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This guide is the ultimate planning tool to secure your financial future after a brain injury. You will be meticulously guided through 13 areas where the legal system can have a massive impact on your quality of life.
Here's a taster of 1 area - Family.
Stage 4 - Child Support & Spousal Maintenance
Stage 4 - Child support & spousal maintenance
Written by Pierce Carstensen
Contact PIERCE on (07) 3231 0411
After we have dealt with the immediate medical needs of the injured person, our attention should be turned towards their loved ones.
The relationship status of a person living with a brain injury mightn’t always be the first thing considered after receiving medical care.
But it really should be.
If they’re divorced or separated then they could be paying for, or receiving, spousal maintenance and/or child support.
Spousal maintenance is financial support for a party of a separation whereby they cannot support themselves.
Child support is the ongoing, periodic financial support made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child after separation or divorce.
DEFINITION: spousal maintenance
Spousal maintenance is financial support for a party of a separation whereby they cannot support themselves.
DEFINITION: child support
Child support is the ongoing, periodic financial support made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child after separation or divorce.
Both can be heavily affected if one party becomes incapacitated from brain injury.
As a result, both need to be addressed to ensure no money is being wasted.
Compensation and Family Court Arrangements
It is important to realise that lump sum compensation can greatly affect child support payments and spousal maintenance, particularly if there has been no formal property settlement.
If you are in a situation where a brain injury has impacted on either the payor or payee of these support payments, you will need to consider whether there needs to be an adjustment in the amount of those payments.
Sometimes this may require you to apply to the court and get the orders changed.
Pierce Carstensen, (07) 3231 0411 can walk you through the exact steps you will need to take.
Waypoint 4A: Have I made the necessary changes to child support?
The person themselves, the person’s administrator or the person’s EPA will need to make changes online to have their case assessed by the government.
To do this, you need to follow these few steps:
If you are unsure about who has these powers, you will need to return to Waypoint 1 and re-assess the SDM’s.
Waypoint 4B: Have I considered changes to spousal maintenance?
Spousal maintenance, as stated, is paid to a party of a separation whereby they cannot support themselves.
There are many factors that need considering when addressing changes to spousal maintenance, from how far through the separation process they are to what benefits they are receiving due to the injury, and many other circumstances in between.
It is most vital to address this matter when a separation or divorce is in the process or is less than 12 months since the date of separation.
As the majority of divorces will contain a lawyer, you should contact the lawyer dealing with the matter if it is ongoing. If it has been closed, you should contact Pierce Carstensen on (07) 3231 0411 to discuss your options.
After making adjustments, if any, for child support and spousal maintenance, it is time to consider an extra set or two of helping hands.
Helping hands that make caring for the person living with a brain injury much, much easier.
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