Lemongrass-

I recently went through a divorce and belong to a message board moderated by a local attorney who addresses simple questions for free. Somebody posted something along the lines you are wondering about. I have included the text below:

Minnesota here.
Here is the circumstance we are in.
I am married to a man for almost 2 years in November. He has adopted my two sons who are ages 12 and 13.
My husband is a sweet man but financially we should never have goten married.
I was a widow with 2 small children and receiving social security because I am a parent of almost 400 extra a month. Of course when I got married the benefits to me stopped however I still do get ss for the boys. I put away a few hundred a month for them for college.
I have had several health problems since I got married to second husband and we are having to pay alot out of pocket medical bills. Before I married both my boys and I were on medical assistance.
My husband now has 4 children from a prior marriage which he pays 1000 a month support for.
My uestion is this....social security has told me that if I divorce my husband that I am married to now that I can go back and receive the benefits under my dead husbands ss.
Medical worker has told me that if I get divorced I will get on medical assistance. Also if I get divorced then my 2 boys will get free school lunches. Right now the schools go by husbands gross income and they dont care that 39% of his net pay goes to support.
I want to know...do people get divorced for financial reasons and then still live together?
Can we get divorced without a lawyers help? We own our home and husband told me that I can have the home but the loan is in both of our names....I have bad credit...will the bank put the home just in my name with bad credit ?
All of this would be for financial.
I do not think husband should have to pay child support for our boys either because I receive 1500 for them monthly for survivors benefits.
Have you ever heard of this? Are we jsut totally nuts to even think of such a thing. We are lsoing money by being married!
Any help you can give is really appreciated.
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I have had prior cases where parties have divorced for financial reasons and then cohabitated together. I cannot answer your question regarding the Social Security benefits without researching that particular matter.

If you have simple issues and no conflicts, you may be able to divorce by agreement and fill out forms without a lawyers help. If you go to http://www.nvo.com/beaulier/do1it1yourself" you can find forms by Docupro. They guarantee that their forms are self explanatory and will work in each state.
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Hope this gives you some idea what others are doing in your situation.

Best of luck! Social Security is a real pain in the butt and barely pays for groceries!

night_shade