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17th Feb 2010
Marriage rate fall masks poverty risks for women and children
Women and their children are increasingly at risk of a life on the breadline in the event of relationship breakdown because of a lack of legal protection for cohabiting couples, a leading family law solicitor has said.
Responding to the publication of figures which show that the number of people getting married in the UK 
is at its lowest level since 1895, Rebecca Baker, head of the Family Department at Raleys Solicitors in Barnsley, said women often came out of a relationship financially worse off than their ex-partner because in most relationships men are still the main breadwinner. She explained that there was nothing in law to support the division of income or assets in each party’s sole name between unmarried couples.
is at its lowest level since 1895, Rebecca Baker, head of the Family Department at Raleys Solicitors in Barnsley, said women often came out of a relationship financially worse off than their ex-partner because in most relationships men are still the main breadwinner. She explained that there was nothing in law to support the division of income or assets in each party’s sole name between unmarried couples.“Many people do not realise that the legal safeguards of marriage do not apply to couples who live together outside wedlock – and that is the case whether children are involved or not,” said Rebecca. “When a marriage breaks down there is a legal process you can go through to ensure assets are divided fairly and to ensure that the future financial needs of children are met. Yet if a relationship ends and the couple were cohabiting, regardless of the length of time they were together, in the vast majority of cases there is either nothing, or very little, one can do to safeguard their financial well-being.”
She continued: “In the vast majority of relationships, even today, men are still the main earner. When a relationship out of marriage ends, it is often the woman who faces giving up rights to savings in their ex-partner’s sole name and losing her home because she cannot afford to keep it on herself. Children often remain in the full-time care of their mother, leading to more financial pressures. A relationship breakdown could mean a woman having to make the difficult decision between giving up her job to care for her children or pay for extra childcare to ensure she can stay in work.
“The lack of adequate legal protection for unmarried couples means women and their children can quickly find themselves falling into poverty and relying on handouts from government and family.”
Rebecca said it was an issue which needed to be addressed by government as the Office of National Statistics has predicted thatthe number of unmarried cohabiting couples will increase by two thirds over the next 25 years.
She said: “The law in this area has been overtaken by the changes in our society. There is a fear that introducing new laws to protect unmarried couples financially in the event of relationship breakdown will undermine marriage. Surely the most important issue here, particularly when children are involved, is to ensure both parties can leave a relationship in a financially stable position.”
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