Separation And Divorce – An Introduction To Spousal Maintenance
In the last half of the 20th century, the average family unit would probably see the husband going out to work and acting as the breadwinner, as the wife remained at home and took care of the household and also the children. In this particular scenario, whenever a married couple got a divorce, some kind of spousal maintenance, or alimony, would’ve been fairly common. Seeing that the wife had spent most of the marital relationship taking good care of the home, and so had not pursued any sort of employment or occupation, she’d most probably be unable to support herself after the divorce if she didn’t receive this payment from the ex-spouse.
Nowadays, a lot of families require more than one income to sustain today’s standard of living. This frequently means there’ll be more than one breadwinner – in contrast to past generations. Whilst alimony or spousal maintenance payments may still be an important part of the divorce settlement, they aren’t certain, neither will they be always provided by the husband for the benefit of the wife. Modern day divorce cases may involve a wife and husband that are perfectly capable of supporting themselves on their own, and as a result no maintenance would be needed. And in circumstances where the wife was in fact the principal breadwinner in the relationship, she could be expected to provide alimony contributions to her husband.
No person in a marriage has an inherent obligation to provide support to their former spouse when they get divorced. Every situation is going to be totally different; and whether spousal maintenance is actually necessary, and if that’s the case, what amount needs to be provided and by whom, can only be decided after looking at the married couple’s individual circumstances. If perhaps it is possible that you’ll be required to pay some kind of maintenance payment after your separation and divorce, here is a bit of information that might be beneficial.
Maintenance payments come in various sizes and shapes, in relation to what amount you’re required to contribute, and precisely how long you might need to pay it for. You might be expected to pay a lump-sum payment to yourex-partner when the divorce process is finalised. Alternatively, you might be required to provide your former partner with regular contributions, for a particular amount of time. This might be some sort of short-term obligation, until such time as they’ve got the skill sets, training, or employment they’re going to need in order to become self-supporting; or alternatively it might be long-term, and in a number of situations, for the rest of their life, or until they get married once again.
If you are required to make regular spousal maintenance payments, it is very important that you appreciate that these particular payments could be altered or changed someday in the future. This could just be due to variations in the cost of living or, as is sometimes the situation, whenever the financial circumstances of the provider or perhaps the recipient change. In cases where the individual providing the payments receives a significant increase in salary, a modification might be likely to raise their contributions.
The amount of maintenance may be lowered as well, in cases where the individual receiving the payments benefited from a substantially improved financial position, or maybe the provider’s financial status deteriorated, for instance. Having said that, the opportunity for modifying spousal maintenance payments could be limited by the initial divorce settlement, which is the reason it is usually important to make sure you receive the appropriate legal advice.
In the event that you live in or around Leeds, and you’re handling a Divorce Leeds situation, a Divorce Solicitors Leeds office can offer the support you might need.
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