I am surprised in the recent recession that there has not been much attention given to parents and/or exes that have lost their job and cannot pay alimony.
The more stories that I hear about women collecting alimony the more furious I get. Let me be clear, these are not women with minor children that have to meet a school bus in the afternoon. The women I am taking about are college educated and have children in college!
I recently spoke to a man who was laid off from his job. After twenty-plus years of marriage his wife cheated on him, divorced him, and shacked up with the handyman—literally. As part of the divorce settlement, she got half of all the marital assets. She supported her husband, raised the children, and she deserves it. Alimony? Not so much …
Her husband, however, has to pay her to live in his old house with the handyman. In Connecticut you have to prove cohabitation and financial support if you want to reduce the alimony you are paying. The handyman has been living with her since the day of her divorce more than six years ago, and her ex-husband has to support the household expenses for both of them.
The ex-wife is college educated and chooses to work as a part-time receptionist, about twelve hours a week. She knows that if she works full-time her alimony will be reduced and she has an ex-husband that gets up and goes to work every day to still support her, so why should she?
Now, the ex-husband has no job and cannot afford the alimony. He has to go to court to get approval from a judge to reduce the alimony while he job hunts. The state of Connecticut is virtually creating a class of women that are walimony recipients. Walimony is welfare alimony.
Connecticut has created a class of women who do not have to support themselves, even if they can. The women are dependant on ex-husbands to do it for them. What about now? The ex-husband has been looking for a year and cannot find a job. Why does the state of Connecticut mandate that he work and not her? What happened to her half of the estate? Why can’t she live off that? Why can’t her new companion/handyman help support the house he lives in?
