Tuesday, August 6, 2002

A story published today by the Express & Star reports that the divorce rate in England has shot up for the first time in a decade. While many wives get the house, the children and the maintenance after a divorce, ex-husbands can be left with virtually nothing.

Paul Rushton planned to leave his beautiful Devon home to his son and daughter. The divorce courts signed it over to his wife, because she was granted custody of the children.

When the children decided to live with their father, the ex-wife was still allowed to sell the house. She made a cool £170,000. Today, Mr Rushton and his children live in poverty.

"What I want to know," asks Paul Rushton, "is how many other men and children's lives have been similarly wrecked because the system is so biased in women's favor?"

At his rented home in Trysull, Mr. Smith says he is one of this financially battered brigade.

Mr. Smith does not blame his ex-wife. He sees himself as the victim of a legal system which, quite rightly, puts the children first - but often results in unfairness to men.

Wives are usually given custody of the children and the family home. For a while, Mr. Smith paid £239 maintenance plus more than £300 a month for the mortgage.

"Although the house was in my name, I had always paid the mortgage. Suddenly, half my salary was going and I was somehow expected to buy or rent somewhere else to live," he says. "I was virtually destitute."

But there was more to come. As part of the settlement, his first wife retained the company-pension benefits which would apply if her ex-husband died while working.

When he opted for early retirement a few weeks ago, Mr Smith was obliged to hand over £15,700 of his company-pension lump sum to his ex-wife.

When the law on splitting pensions came into force two years ago Michael Napier, president of the Law Society said it "put right an obvious area of unfairness."

Others say that the new pension deal for women, coupled with soaring property values, may account for a recent rise in divorces cases. Over the past 30 years the number of married couples in England has fallen from 25 million to just over 22 million.

With the family home soaring in value, plus the lure of the husband's company pension, the temptations are obvious.