What is spousal maintenance?
After a divorce has been finalised a husband, wife or civil partner may be required to pay to their former partner a reoccurring amount (generally on a monthly basis) to cover the day to day costs of living if they cannot support themselves financially from their own income or assets.
This is referred to spousal maintenance and can often be due to the fact that one person in the relationship was the primary breadwinner for the household during the relationship, whilst the other person looked after the family home and did not earn an income or earnt a part-time wage.
On what grounds is spousal maintenance awarded?
Whether maintenance is awarded or not will depend on the circumstances of the separated parties but it will generally be dependent on the:
- Length of the marriage
- Employment status of both parties
- Ages of both people
- Any children from the relationship – however, it is completely separate from child maintenance
It is worth noting that the grounds (e.g. adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion, etc.) made for the divorce doesn’t have any influence on the spousal maintenance payments.
Any order made and its duration should be for the purpose of permitting the receiving party to adjust without undue hardship. The Court will also look to meet needs with respect of the making of a spousal maintenance order. The party looking to make the claim for spousal maintenance has to have a real and genuine need to share the other party’s income. It is only awarded if one party cannot support themselves without payments from the other.
When do spousal maintenance payments end?
Maintenance can be paid for a defined period of time after a divorce has been finalised or alternatively must be paid for the remainder of either parties’ life (known as joint lives maintenance).
However, should the recipient of the maintenance remarry or pass away then the payments would stop. Likewise, if the circumstances of either party were to change (e.g. they lost their job and/or main source of income) then the payment amounts may be altered or stopped by the Courts.
Clean break
An alternative to paying on-going spousal maintenance is for both parties to agree to a clean break of their finances and assets accrued from their marriage, ending the financial ties between both parties. The Court could also make a clean break order in cases where it may not be appropriate for either party to receive spousal maintenance.
Once both parties have agreed how their assets and finances are to be split, the agreement is recorded in a Court order, so no future financial claims can be made.
What are nominal maintenance orders?
Nominal maintenance orders are generally awarded by the Courts in circumstances where a separated person does have the financial means of supporting themselves and so spousal maintenance is not required but they may require financial support in the future.
A small amount of money, e.g. one pound, will be paid per annum to the recipient by their former partner and the case is kept open should the circumstances of the recipient change (e.g. their incoming finances are reduced from them losing their job) and they require spousal maintenance to support themselves and/or children they look after from the marriage or civil partnership.
How can Nelsons help?
For more information on spousal maintenance or any related matters, please contact a member of our family law solicitors in Derby, Leicester or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
A member of the team will be happy to discuss your circumstances in more detail and give you more information about the services that we can provide along with details of our hourly rates and fixed fee services.
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