A payment no longer necessary

A payment no longer necessary

"Since 1988, under the terms of the divorce decree that dissolved our marriage, I have been paying my ex-wife alimony of CHF 50 per month. Today, I'm retired and receive a very small pension. My ex-wife is also retired, but has inherited a large sum of money from her mother and lives in a flat that she owns and therefore pays no expenses. Do I really have to continue paying this pension?

The legislator, aware of the impact that a marriage can have on the financial capacity of the spouses due to the division of tasks during their life together, has offered the divorce judge the possibility of ordering one of the spouses to pay a maintenance contribution to the other when the latter is not in a position to provide for his or her maintenance alone.

To determine the amount and duration of the contribution, the judge will take into account various criteria such as the age and state of health of the spouses or their income and assets. It should be noted that, according to established case law, the minimum subsistence level of the person liable for the maintenance contribution must be preserved. Thus, when the existence of two separate households creates a deficit, this deficit is not shared between the ex-spouses but is borne by the spouse receiving the maintenance contribution.

As a general rule, maintenance payments are made in the form of a fixed or indefinite annuity that is indexed to the cost of living.

However, it is clear that the financial and personal situation of former spouses does not remain fixed ad eternam. The law provides that if the situation of the debtor or creditor changes significantly and permanently, the pension may be reduced, withdrawn or even suspended. That said, an improvement in the creditor's resources will not be taken into account if the divorce decree finds that the contribution set was not sufficient to ensure his or her proper maintenance; furthermore, the pension may only be revised upwards if the debtor's income increases in an unforeseeable way.

In this case, it appears that the situation has changed significantly and permanently since 1988. Your financial situation has worsened, since you are receiving a pension that is lower than your previous income, whereas your wife's situation has improved, since she clearly has more assets than on the day of the divorce and her expenses have decreased. It is therefore likely that the Court will grant your application to vary your divorce decree.