Location: Virginia
Quick scenario – a husband got a protective order against his wife, that (among other things) states that she is not allowed to live with her kids (until further arbitration) and that also the husband and the kids will stay in the house. The wife/mother has been hopping from friend’s house to friend’s house, but is about out of options and will have to go to a homeless shelter / woman’s shelter. To me this seems ridiculous – the husband/father is the classic bread winner, controls all of the money now, and there is no legal requirement for a living allowance / housing allowance to be paid to his (still legal) wife? She goes from being the stay at home mom, per the way they wanted their marriage, to having zero money and no way of providing for her most basic needs? I’ve done some Googling to no avail; is there really no legal provisioning requiring a certain amount of his income to go to her during this period?
Comments
Wife may be able to discuss the idea of some temporary orders with her family law attorney.
Though, obviously, her situation is precarious in the extreme.
If they’re in the divorce process, she can request payment through that. If they aren’t, why the hell not?!?!
In this scenario the wife/mother is the subject, not the victim. He got an order on her because she did something wrong. The courts aren’t going to make the victim pay the subject money.
Does the wife have access to the bank accounts still? The protective order doesn’t change that and she can still access any accounts/credit cards with her name on it. Others have answered your question, but no, there is no requirement to provide for a spouse during a marriage. During the separation she can file for support.