Just over 103,000 partnerships were dissolved in 2023. 99 per cent were divorces; the rest were civil partnerships. These are similar numbers before the Covid pandemic. Divorce rates per 1,000 married individuals were nearly the same for both men and women. Same-sex civil partnership dissolution rates were 7.4 for men Read more…
There are 28.6 million households: 67% contain one family and 30% are a single person living alone. More people live alone than ten years ago and a larger proportion of them were aged 65 years or over. One third of men aged between 20 and 34 years live with their Read more…
Northern Ireland are looking at possibly changing their divorce laws. The current law requires couples to either go through a lengthy separation before a divorce is granted. Alternatively, proceedings can begin straight away if one person is at fault – either through desertion, adultery, or unreasonable behaviour. Relate NI calls Read more…
Divorce slashes women’s household incomes far more than men’s. Wives can expect their income to be halved in the year after ending the relationship, compared with a 30% drop for husbands. One woman complained: “Why would the settlement be a 50-50 split when my earning capability is a quarter of Read more…
The composition of families continues to change over time. The generation of women born in 1951 had 2.04 children; the generation born in 1978 have 1.95 children. The forecast is for the next generation (born in 2007) to have just 1.52 children Girls who have been born this year are Read more…
People in the UK have around 20 million small pension pots worth under £10,000 each. These small deferred pension pots have been accumulated as people change employment during their working lives. Many of the pension pots are very small and therefore expensive to run and that results in lower returns. Read more…
Just over a quarter of a million recent divorces were postponed due to financial pressures since 2020. 17% of divorces were deferred because of money worries. Couples cited income concerns, rising living expenses and the cost of divorce. Once separated, almost half of divorcees see their incomes shrink by an Read more…
The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme is to be continued for another year. The Family Mediation Council says it has been successful in helping people make important agreements without the need to go to court. The scheme will now run until March 2026. The government supports family mediation and is working Read more…
The delays for public sector workers in getting their pension valuations are continuing. Many people cannot complete their divorce settlements because of the changes in how pension pots are valued. The government’s Money Helper website says that if you qualify for a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV), it must be Read more…
The High Court has overturned a judge’s decision to forego the financial dispute resolution (FDR) in a case where there was “an ongoing factual dispute about the wife’s earning capacity and that the wife’s position had not crystallised to enable the FDR process to be successful”. The High Court judge Read more…