Spousal support, also known as spousal maintenance, maybe 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.

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 basic 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 successfully 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.

There is no set formula for contact spousal maintenance. In order to work out fair spousal maintenance costs, the Court will need to see evidence and projections of each persons’ 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.

The court has a duty to dismiss the obligation between the former spouses as soon as reasonably possible. If the financially weaker spouse moves into employment or re-training and is financially able to support them self, 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.

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. It is important to note that spousal support will stop should the spouse receiving the maintenance remarries.

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.

• 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 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.

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 custody arrangements and financial settlements.