Spousal Maintenance

Part of: Financial Settlement after Divorce

Following divorce proceedings, you may be ordered to pay your former spouse money in order to help with their living costs and maintenance after separation. This is known as spousal maintenance and is often one of the most difficult aspects of any marriage breakdown or separation. These regular outgoing payments form part of the financial settlement. Only a spouse or civil partner can claim them. It is important to note that spousal support is different and separate to child maintenance which is solely for the benefit of any children from the marriage.

Our family law specialists at Kabir Family Law can advise and assist with divorce spousal maintenance, so that after a marriage breakdown you can seek the support you need from your ex-spouse in order to live.

Our experts also help spouses who are being asked to make spousal maintenance payments when it is not necessary and help spouses to put a legal agreement in place that is suited for both parties.

We regularly advise and assist clients on both sides of spousal maintenance. Some stepped back from work to raise a family. Others face demands to pay more, or for longer, than their circumstances justify. One early decision is whether to accept a clean break. If the court dismisses a maintenance claim with a direction under section 25A(3), you cannot bring that claim again. That bar holds even if your circumstances change.

Is spousal maintenance the same as alimony?

Spousal maintenance is what most people mean by alimony. English courts once used that word too, and it is still common in the United States. Today the law in England and Wales calls these payments periodical payments. Under section 23(1)(a) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, the court can order one spouse to pay the other regular sums for a term set in the order.

Before it orders maintenance, the court must consider whether a clean break would be appropriate. If it does order payments, section 25A(2) asks it to consider a fixed term long enough for the receiving spouse to adjust without undue hardship. Under section 28(1A), the court can also direct that the term cannot be extended. An ordinary maintenance order ends if either of you dies, or if the person receiving it remarries or forms a civil partnership.

Is alimony a thing in the UK?

What Americans call alimony exists here as spousal maintenance. A court in England and Wales can order a former spouse to pay it, and couples can agree it themselves and record it in a financial consent order. If you divorced in Scotland or Northern Ireland, different rules apply. If your former partner says maintenance is not payable here, book a free consultation before you agree to anything.

When is spousal support needed?

Spousal support, also known as spousal maintenance, may be applicable where following a separation one of the spouses is left with no income. In order to determine the amount of spousal maintenance the court will consider the standard of living enjoyed during the time both partners were together.

Do I need to pay spousal support?

Spousal support is needed when one person within the marriage breakdown is significantly financially weaker than the other and requires another form of income to meet their financial needs.

Our family law specialists at Kabir Family Law can assist you in reviewing and assessing whether you need to pay spousal maintenance to your former spouse. When considering spousal maintenance many factors need to be considered. Length of the marriage is one of the key factors considered. Generally, if the marriage was one of long term then spousal maintenance may be payable.

If you have given up your career to allow the career of your former spouse to progress during the term of the marriage, this could strongly support a case for divorce spousal maintenance as you can argue that you have given up work to look after the home and/or children.

The age of the parties will also be a key factor in deciding whether the financially weaker spouse will be able to maintain themselves given their age and the time they have been out of active employment. This is a highly complex area and our family law experts are happy to discuss your matter and claim for spousal maintenance given that each marriage has varying circumstances.

However, if both parties are deemed as financially equal, a clean break order can be issued. This means that you will not have to pay maintenance to your spouse after you have separated. Our specialists can assist you in this highly complex matter and will be happy to discuss this issue with you in more detail.

How much spousal maintenance am I expected to pay?

There is no set formula for spousal maintenance. In order to work out fair spousal maintenance costs, the Court will need to see evidence and projections of each person’s expected outgoings. These will be scrutinised and depending on the accuracy of each projection, the Court will decide whether or not either spouse is required to pay maintenance – and how long for.

The level of financial support that you are required to pay your spouse after a separation depends on a variety of factors, including whether or not each party has a consistent wage and the capacity to achieve higher earnings.

Is there a spousal maintenance calculator?

There is no spousal maintenance calculator in England and Wales, because the law sets no formula. Under section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, the court looks at all the circumstances. The welfare of any child of the family under 18 comes first. Any spousal support calculator you find online applies its own rule, not the law. Child maintenance is different. The Child Maintenance Service uses a fixed formula. Schedule 1 to the Child Support Act 1991 sets it out, starting from the paying parent’s gross weekly income. Our child maintenance calculator guide shows how it works.

Section 25(2) then lists what the court must weigh for each of you:

• income, earning capacity and other resources, now and in the foreseeable future
• financial needs, obligations and responsibilities
• the family’s standard of living before the marriage broke down
• your ages and the length of the marriage
• any physical or mental disability
• contributions to the family, including looking after the home or caring for the family
• conduct, but only where it would be inequitable to disregard it
• any benefit, such as a pension, that the divorce means losing the chance of acquiring

A calculator would have to give each factor a fixed weight. The court gives each one the weight the case needs, so two couples with the same salaries can end up with different orders.

Which factors will decide your figure?

No answer here gives the figure. That turns on whether each budget survives the evidence and what a court expects each of you to earn. Get advice before you agree a figure or an end date.

Book a free consultation

How long does spousal maintenance last?

The court must consider a clean break (section 25A(1)). It asks how soon after the divorce order ending your financial ties would be just and reasonable. If the financially weaker spouse moves into employment or re-training and is financially able to support themselves, then our family specialists can assist you in trying to reach an agreement with your former spouse to reduce or end the maintenance. If an agreement is unable to be reached, then you can look to apply to the court to vary the spousal maintenance.

Can spousal support last until a specific agreed event?

It is important to note that spousal support can be for a fixed term of years or until a specific agreed event, i.e. when the financially weaker spouse begins to earn a certain amount of income. Spousal maintenance can also be payable for the parties’ joint lives and depends on the individual circumstances. Under a court order, spousal support stops if the spouse receiving it remarries or forms a civil partnership (section 28(1)(a)).

In order to discuss this complex issue please contact our specialists who would be happy to arrange a consultation to consider your individual circumstances and discuss your query in detail.

Common questions about spousal maintenance

• What does a Court consider when deciding maintenance payments? The Court will consider the length of the marriage, future earning potential, the standard of living throughout the marriage and other financial commitments.
• What happens if a spouse gets re-married? If a spouse who is receiving spousal support from their ex-partner decides to re-marry during the period that payments are being made, the spouse will no longer be entitled to spousal support from their previous partner. The same applies if they form a civil partnership.

Can a change in my financial circumstances affect the level of spousal support?

The maintenance order from the court will outline the duration in which you’re expected to pay spousal maintenance. This can be for a limited period of time, until one spouse dies or until the youngest child that you share turns 18 years old or for the joint lives of the spouses.

The maintenance period can also be affected by a change in circumstances. This means that if the spouse you’re paying maintenance to gets into employment after the financial arrangements have been decided, they may not need your financial support anymore or may need reduced maintenance and so the spousal support can be varied or stopped.

Disputing spousal maintenance

Because spousal maintenance is so complex, it’s often difficult for two spouses to agree on a maintenance fee. However, it is important for both parties to settle on an agreement that is financially suited to them and any children involved.

In the instance that a spouse disagrees with the spousal maintenance plan that the Court has put into place, animosity between the two parties can escalate and make it difficult to organise other factors such as child arrangements and financial settlements.

Arrange a consultation with our Family Law Specialists today

The two spousal maintenance decisions that matter most are the figure and the end date. A figure has to survive the evidence of both budgets. If the order bars an extension, the receiving spouse cannot ask for more time. Book a free consultation before you agree either, and we can talk through which factors carry weight in your case. As well as working nationally, we have family lawyers in Newcastle, York, Oxford, Fulham and London.