Whilst we welcome the recent downward trend in the UK’s headline inflation rate, there is no doubt that families across the country continue to feel the pinch with real wages persisting to lag behind inflation. Negotiations against a backdrop of affordability is a feature of family law and we regularly advise clients on their spousal maintenance orders and concerns regarding the impact that rising inflation rates will have on their ability to meet their own income needs. This blog will consider how spousal maintenance orders can be linked to inflation, how to calculate these inflations and wha ..read more

For most people, it is impossible to escape the cost of living crisis: either from the almost daily news coverage as the crisis continues, or from the very tangible impact that it is having on most families’ finances. But for separated families, the current crisis may cause an additional and unexpected headache aside from the obvious issue of having to finance two separate households. How might the rise in inflation rates impact me? Many orders for spousal maintenance, whether ordered by the court at the conclusion of financial remedy proceedings or reached by consent between the parties, will ..read more

It is perhaps unsurprising that someone who has been ordered to pay maintenance to their ex-partner, following their divorce or civil partnership dissolution, would feel aggrieved at having to continue to do so in circumstances where their ex has started living with a new partner. In this article, I address the impact of living with another person after divorce on maintenance payments. Child Maintenance Child maintenance remains payable whether or not your ex is living with a new partner.  The obligation to pay child maintenance continues regardless of your ex’s circumstances.   ..read more

Changes to spousal maintenance As you may have read in my previous blog on spousal/civil partner maintenance – or periodical payments – ‘orders’ have the potential to be varied (in other words, changed) by either the paying or receiving party. What does this mean? Put simply, in variation proceedings (or better still through a focussed dialogue using a dispute resolution model payments can be reduced, increased, rolled up into a one-off payment (known as capitalisation) or dismissed altogether. The fact an order can be varied may cause feelings of uncertainty and/or vulnerability for both the ..read more

In my previous blog on spousal maintenance payments I dealt with maintenance orders that have been made in England, Wales and/or where the debtor lives within the UK, but is unable or refusing to pay. In this blog I deal with enforcement if the order was made outside of England and Wales and/or the debtor lives outside the UK. First Steps There are numerous regulations and statutory instruments which make international enforcement of financial orders a highly complex area. In most cases, enforcement of maintenance orders can be carried out through governmental agencies. The first step, therefo ..read more

As inflation in the UK hits a 40 year high of 9%, there are few who have not felt the impact on their family budgets and standard of living. The Consumer Price Index is expected to continue rising to above 10% by October 2022, resulting in a further squeeze on household budgets. For those who have had a recent divorce, it may lead them to wonder whether they can re-open the financial settlement to make greater allowance for this unexpected increase in the cost of living. This is a very common concern, particularly now when finances are being stretched for all sorts of reasons that could not ha ..read more

This was the question that was before the court in the case of Waggott v Waggott earlier this year. It has been in the press again as the Supreme Court has just refused the wife in the case permission to appeal the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal. The case involved a husband and wife who were married in 2000 having lived together since 1991. They had a child together in 2004 and separated in 2012. From 2001 Mrs Waggott, a former accountant, had not worked while her husband continued to have a very successful career which provided him with a salary in excess £3m net per year. At the tim ..read more

Co-authored by Kate Elliott. With thanks to QEB, 1 Crown Office Row, 1GC, 1KBW, 4PB and 36 Family for their contribution. What a decade it has been – and what a decade will it be to come – Part 1 The turning of the decade can be a significant moment in time – there was much talk at the turn of the millennium of bugs/explosions/the end of the world at 00.00 on 31st December but we slipped into the 2000s without major incident and thus it continued. The first 10 years of the 2000s came and went and all of a sudden, we were in the 20s and no one could have guessed what life would throw at us ..read more

I have previously written a number of blogs about the tricky subject of spousal maintenance. In the main I have addressed what the court looks at when considering when to make a spousal maintenance order. However, what happens when you are successful in obtaining a court order for spousal maintenance but the person ordered to pay it doesn’t? First, if you are the person who has been ordered to pay spousal maintenance it is vital that you don’t simply stop paying. Doing so could cause you all sorts of problems. It is therefore vital that you seek legal advice if you are struggling to pay the or ..read more

Following on from my two popular blogs on spousal maintenance, I thought it would be helpful to provide an update as to where we are now given some time has passed since they were written. Well, not an awful lot has changed following the guidance produced by the Law Commission’s recommendations made within the Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements project and the significant case of SS v NS 2014 so I thought it might be useful to highlight a few cases, both from before my blog posts were written and since, which underpin the basis of my original blog ‘Spousal Maintenance – what is it? why ..read more