Being made redundant and spousal maintenance

Hi,

I am being made redundant due to COVID-19 and have a court order from sept 2018 to pay spousal maintenance which I can no longer afford to pay. What are my options? Can I just stop paying it or do I have to apply to court to get this stopped? Clearly with all the courts slowing down this could many months or even years to sort out.

I am very desperate and my ex just wants the money and will not be reasonable at all.

Regards

The simplest and quickest solution is to get the agreement of the payee in writing. It needs to be in writing so that it can be used in evidence later if necessary. If agreement is not possible then you will need to make a court application, yes. The court application should include an application to remit all arrears as well as an application to remit the sum to a nominal amount. Obviously unless and until the order is varied the money remains payable but if you do not have the income to pay it then you cannot pay (and should not get into debt attempting to pay).