People living together in England and Wales ‘would have to meet certain qualifying criteria’
BBC listeners were told of a massive reform being proposed for 3.5 million unmarried couples who are not in civil partnerships. BBC Radio 4’s Moneybox Live programme heard that the changes would introduce a new ‘three-year’ threshold for individuals to qualify for enhanced rights.
Currently in England and Wales, unmarried partners have no automatic legal entitlement to inherit from a deceased partner, irrespective of the duration of their relationship or whether they share children. Presenter Felicity Hannah said: “Major changes could be on the way for the financial rights of many unmarried people. There are 3.5million UK couples living in unwedded bliss.
“It’s the fastest growing kind of family in the country but now the government wants to change how cohabiting couples in England and Wales divide money and property if they split up or if one of them dies.
“Because as it stands, couples who haven’t married or civil partnered have no automatic legal rights, no matter how long they’ve been together.”
The Government described the existing ‘outdated’ framework as providing unmarried cohabiting couples with minimal financial protections when relationships break down. The proposals would enable people to access a portion of property proceeds to help safeguard their financial stability.
The report highlighted that difficulties emerge when couples separate and one partner is financially reliant on the other. The government stated that the proposals would assist couples, including survivors of domestic abuse, in achieving financial security and independence at the conclusion of a cohabiting relationship, ‘whatever their marital status’.
Hannah Saxe, a specialist family solicitor at Brabners law firm said: “There is very limited remedies available on relationship breakdowns for unmarried families and there’s a common misconception you can be someone’s common law spouse. That’s the idea that if you live together for a long time, or you’ve got children together, you would be treated the same as a husband or a wife if you split up.
“That’s not actually the case. There’s no single piece of law about what happens in terms of money on relationship breakdown if you’re not married. You can’t claim against your partner’s pension, or their savings and investments, and there’s no responsibility between cohabiting partners to support the other financially if they’ve done something like giving up their job to stay home and look after the children. There are claims you can make in relation to property but they come under property and trust law that’s not really designed with families in mind.”
The consultation will also examine whether courts ought to place greater emphasis on the effects of domestic abuse, including controlling or coercive behaviour or economic abuse, when evaluating finances for married couples and those living together.
Ms Saxe explained how the law could change – and how people would need to ‘qualify’ for three years: “What the government is proposing is that there is a specific statutory framework for unmarried couples on relationship breakdown and that could potentially involve a right to a property transfer, the right to a payment of a capital sum, a right to a pension sharing order and in some exceptional cases the right to maintenance.. “But the remedies being proposed are much more narrow than those available to married couples on divorce. And the couple would have to meet certain qualifying criteria for the law to apply to them.”
Felicity Hannah said: “So it’s not as soon as you move in – bam here are all these rights?”. Ms Saxe said: “No that’s right and there’s talk of a three year relationship qualifying and also if you have a child together. So it is much more narrow than if you’re married.”
The public now awaits the government’s response to the findings of the consultation.
To read the consultation document click here. To listen to Moneybox click here.
