Upon divorce or dissolution, the Court has the power to make orders for periodical payments and secure periodical payments. These are commonly called maintenance and fall into two areas, child maintenance and spousal maintenance. Under section 31 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 maintenance can be subject to future variation applications by either the paying or receiving party.
Typically only orders of an income nature, such as maintenance, can varied. However, the court can also vary lump sum orders were the payment is in instalments. The court can not only vary the amount (upwards or downwards) but it can also dismiss the order or change the length of the order.
The court will consider all the circumstances of the case, including an update assessment of the section 25 MCA1973 factors, with the first consideration being the welfare of any children.
No, however, any change of personal and financial factors since the original order was made may have great importance. A frequent factor is whether the receiving party has taken reasonable steps to increase their own earning capacity since the first order was made.
When considering any financial application, the Court must consider whether or not a “clean break” is achievable. If spousal maintenance is needed the Court will also look to see if it can be “capitalised”, in other words an additional sum is paid in lieu of future spousal maintenance. When asked to capitalise the court is restricted to considering whether there should be any variation to the original sum ordered, whether the provision can and should (in the interests of fairness) be capitalised and the maths of capitalisation. However, the court cannot re-open the capital claims from the original case. The court can capitalise into a lump sum or even a pension sharing order.
A nuptial agreement is a contract entered into by spouses or civil partners to regulate the ownership of money, property, assets and responsibility of debt.
The Ministry of Justice has said the increasing court fees said to be vital to ongoing court work for all those who seek justice, however,
No more unreasonable behaviour petitions, no more adultery petitions. As from April 2022, couples who want to divorce and then co-parent on an amicable basis
How does the court calculate child maintenance? The starting point for calculating child maintenance payments will always be the CMS formula. This formula applies on
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© Gordons Partnership is the trading name of Gordons Partnership 2020 Limited a company registered in England & Wales (Company Number 12464371).
Registered office is at First Floor, 1 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LF. VAT No: GB 629 857 388 - Site by WBJ Designs
