New York Spousal Support Frequently Asked Questions

Spousal support is the money one spouse may pay another upon divorce according to a court-sanctioned agreement or a court order. It may also be paid to a current spouse. Today, spousal support is usually paid in only about 10% of all divorce cases. Spousal support is also referred to as spousal maintenance.

A spouse can file a petition in New York Family Court for the other spouse to pay spousal support even if they have not yet filed for divorce.

Either a man or a woman may be awarded spousal support depending upon their individual circumstances. However, men are spousal support recipients in only about 3% of the cases nationwide.

A few years ago, New York revised the statute that governs spousal support in an attempt to make spousal support awards more consistent from case to case. Judges now begin their determination by using a formula based on the incomes of the parties. The formula for cases that involve child support is somewhat different from those without child support.

The judge will begin the determination of spousal support amount with one of two statutory formulas depending on whether or not child support will also be paid. New York law puts a cap on the income of the payer’s income for purposes of the calculation, but if the payer’s income is greater than the cap, the court is obliged to look at several other factors in order to arrive at a just result for the spousal support figure. In fact, even if the payer’s income is under the cap, a judge can still consider other factors if a just result demands it.

These factors include age and health, earning capacity, length of the marriage and how long the parties were together before the marriage, whether one spouse gave up their career to support the other spouse and many more factors. The judge actually has quite a bit of discretion even though they begin the spousal support calculation with a statutory formula.

Both spouses must reveal to the court all of their income and property. The court will expect to see financial records, tax returns, pay stubs and any other kind of documentation that reveals financial and property status. Once a court has these documents, it will set a schedule for valuation of property. Property spouses receive and whether or not it can produce income may have an impact on a spousal support award.

Yes, many divorces go on for months or even years. In order to prevent hardship, the state of New York enables you to petition the court for temporary maintenance as soon as the divorce is filed. When the divorce is final if not before, the temporary maintenance will end. Of course, a judge may then award post-divorce spousal support.

Yes, you may be able to get a spousal support modification if there is an extreme change in circumstances such as the payer spouse retiring or involuntarily losing their job.

Spousal support is intended to give the recipient time and financial cushion to become self-sufficient. Spousal support is normally durational that is, it has a set duration, normally long enough for the payee spouse to become self-sufficient. New York judges begin their deliberation of the length of spousal support to award with a noncompulsory advisory schedule set out by statute. The schedule takes the length of the marriage into account in order to determine how long spousal support should last.

To decide the duration, of spousal support, judges may use an advisory schedule provided by the state of New York that lists the percent of time the couple were married as a guideline for duration of spousal support. However, judges consider a number of other factors and are not required to use the schedule at all.

In New York, if a marriage lasts a long time and a spouse is old, ill or unable to support themselves, permanent spousal support may be awarded.

However, spousal support will still end if

• One of the party dies
• The recipient spouse remarries
• The recipient spouse begins to live with a partner they represent as their spouse

Usually the payee spouse will pay taxes and the payer can deduct the amount.

It can take months for a divorce to become final. While waiting for a divorce to be finalized one party may suffer financially. Many jurisdictions allow either party to a divorce to request that the court order the other party to pay alimony during the pendency of the divorce proceeding. This is referred to as temporary alimony. The final divorce order may include the same amount of alimony, a different amount, or none at all.

Temporary alimony can also refer to an alimony award that will last for a set amount of time after the divorce is final, allowing the supported spouse time to recover financially.

If alimony is awarded in a divorce, the length of time the party will have to pay can be based on a variety of factors such as a set end date that the parties agree upon or that the judge orders. That date can be a few months or several years into the future. Alimony typically ceases when the receiving party remarries, but this is not always the case. An event such as the retirement or death of the party paying an result in the end to the obligation to pay alimony.

In determining whether to change the amount of alimony payments, the court will look at a number of factors including whether there has been a significant change in either party’s income, an increase in the cost of living, an illness or disability of either party, the remarriage or cohabitation of the dependent spouse, or retirement. In addition, whether a court will order a change in alimony may also depend on the terms of your divorce settlement. If it disallows modification for any reason, you may have a difficult time persuading a court to decrease your obligation.