Is there lifetime alimony if you are disabled?

[Lish]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? OH

My boyfriend has been divorced for almost 5 1/2 years (July of 04). He has been paying alimony since probably Aug. or Sept. of 2003 after she filed for temporary child support and alimony while they were hashing out the divorce proceedings. His ex was a stay at home mom until the children were old enough that they felt comfortable enough for her to go back to work. She worked at the childrens school in the caferateria. Sometime after that she started complaining about her leg jumping and after numerous doctor visits ( and I mean numerous, even to the Mayo Clinic) she finally had a doctor diagnose her with Dystonia. This would have been back around 1998 or so. Dystonia is a disease that is supposed to cripple the part of the body that it is affecting. She supposedly can't work because of this yet over the years that I've been seeing my boyfriend (almost 4 yrs) I've yet to see her being crippled at all. She walks just like you or me. I've witnessed her cutting grass, moving furniture (big coffe table), and back in 2005 she also was babysitting.
My boyfriend is in the process of trying to have the alimony terminated. It hasn't been filed yet, but is in the works. My question is can the courts order my boyfriend to pay lifetime alimony because she claims she is disabled? She gets a little disability for the school district she worked for but nothing from the state. My boyfriend says she tried to get S.S.I. but was told she didn't have enough work credit hours. I need some information or advice as to how to go about this. The courts do hold jurisdiction on modification of alimony. Can she get permenate alimony? Can't she get S.S.I. if she is truly disabled. I think she has this disease but don't think she can't work. She's had plenty of years to re-educate herself to accommodate her disability. Just because you're disabled doesn't automatically mean you can't work. She gets $1050 a month alimony which doesn't even think about covering all her bills so her mother covers the rest of what she needs which was brought up in court the last time she tried to have the alimony modified. Is there a statute on how long someone has to pay if it wasn't specifically determined in the divorce decree? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gracie3787]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? OH

My boyfriend has been divorced for almost 5 1/2 years (July of 04). He has been paying alimony since probably Aug. or Sept. of 2003 after she filed for temporary child support and alimony while they were hashing out the divorce proceedings. His ex was a stay at home mom until the children were old enough that they felt comfortable enough for her to go back to work. She worked at the childrens school in the caferateria. Sometime after that she started complaining about her leg jumping and after numerous doctor visits ( and I mean numerous, even to the Mayo Clinic) she finally had a doctor diagnose her with Dystonia. This would have been back around 1998 or so. Dystonia is a disease that is supposed to cripple the part of the body that it is affecting. She supposedly can't work because of this yet over the years that I've been seeing my boyfriend (almost 4 yrs) I've yet to see her being crippled at all. She walks just like you or me. I've witnessed her cutting grass, moving furniture (big coffe table), and back in 2005 she also was babysitting.
My boyfriend is in the process of trying to have the alimony terminated. It hasn't been filed yet, but is in the works. My question is can the courts order my boyfriend to pay lifetime alimony because she claims she is disabled? She gets a little disability for the school district she worked for but nothing from the state. My boyfriend says she tried to get S.S.I. but was told she didn't have enough work credit hours. I need some information or advice as to how to go about this. The courts do hold jurisdiction on modification of alimony. Can she get permenate alimony? Can't she get S.S.I. if she is truly disabled. I think she has this disease but don't think she can't work. She's had plenty of years to re-educate herself to accommodate her disability. Just because you're disabled doesn't automatically mean you can't work. She gets $1050 a month alimony which doesn't even think about covering all her bills so her mother covers the rest of what she needs which was brought up in court the last time she tried to have the alimony modified. Is there a statute on how long someone has to pay if it wasn't specifically determined in the divorce decree? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Your BF should speak to an attorney. No one here can give you any real answers because we have no way of knowing exactly what his court order states, or what the facts of the situation are.

 

[Lish]

The divorce decree doesn't say anything about when it will end.. All it says is the amount and that the court holds jurisdiction to modify. It was modified once when the first child graduated. Bf had worked overtime and the court found that it was enough to modify it. She tried the same thing when the second child graduated and the magistrate told her that he felt that the only reason she was trying to have it increased was because she was losing her c.s. In her mind the alimony should go on permenately because she says she's disabled and can't work. What it is, is she doesn't want to work. She'll never be able to go out and find a job making $20 an hour, but she has had time to re-educate herself to maybe find a job to support herself. She wants to sit on her butt all day and live the life of leisure. Don't we all. I thought maybe someone out there might have an opinion on how they think this might go. They were married for 17 years. She's in her 40's. They've been divorced for going on 6 years. Heck she could be almost done with law school by now. Does anyone know if there is a state statute on how long someone has to pay if it is not specified in their decree. And like I said she claims she's disabled but she walks just like anyone I know. I've seen her cutting grass and moving furniture. She also babysat for a period of time until Bf was going to bring it up court then she quit. Wouldn't that be considered a job? She gets no kind of S.S.I. but wouldn't she if she was disabled enough to not work? Does anyone know?