Separating from cohabitation: financial arrangements and consequences

1
Separating from cohabitationfinancial
arrangements and consequences

• ESRC Gender Equality Network seminar
• 7 March 2008
• Jane Lewis, NCB
• Rosalind Tennant and Jean Taylor, NatCen

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Coverage of talk

• Separating from Cohabitation study methods
• what arrangements do couples make?
• who does badly out of it?
• how does this come about?
• how far would the Law Commission proposals help?

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Separating from cohabitation study

• conducted by NatCen for DCA
• objectives to explore arrangements made,
  impacts, processes, influences, role of advice
  and support
• qualitative research 29 in-depth interviews
  (Aug to Nov 05)
• sample frame created from national random
  surveys
• ONS Omnibus to identify separated cohabitants,
  followed up by telephone screen
• Financial Resources Survey (DWP) to identify lone
  parents, payers/recipients of child support,
  cohabitants 2-4 yrs ago, screened to identify
  separated cohabitants and collect more
  information
• purposive sample selected and approached
• 6 group discussions with advisors (Nov to Dec 05)
• solicitors, CAB, CSA, lone parent orgs, housing
  and welfare rights centres, counselling,
  mediation

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Profile of cohabitants
Children Children from relationship Lived with children from previous relationships Youngest child 0-5 6-10 11 11 6 6 5 6 Duration 0-2 years 3-4 Years 5-10 Years 11 Years 8 8 7 6
Home Man owned Women owned Jointly owned Renting 10 5 7 7 Advice None Solicitor CAB CSA Other 17 8 4 4 4
Recency of separation 3mths 2 years 3-4 years 21 8
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What arrangements did couples make?

• divided resources by legal title or ownership
• sole owned houses kept by owner
• joint owned houses sold or kept and offset
• savings and possessions divided by ownership
• pensions not taken into account
• very little independent influence of
• contributions
• needs including of children
• equality
• legal entitlement

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Who does badly out of it?

• depends on how you assess fairness
• assessed arrangements by notions of fairness
  emerging from the research
• ownership
• contribution
• equal division
• equal impact
• cohabitation law
• divorce law

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Actually it doesnt much matter how you assess
fairness

• factors leading to disadvantage are fairly
  consistent across frameworks
• disadvantage arises from
• not owning the home or other assets
• making no or informal financial contributions
• being financially dependent during relationship
• being main carer of children
• esp from a previous relationship
• having no entitlement to state support

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How does this come about?

• financial arrangements during relationship

Joint
Unequal
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Financial arrangements during relationship

• unequal earnings, longer relationships, children
• joint home, different contributions,
  joint/different accounts

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Financial arrangements during relationship

• both earning, no children
• joint home, equal contributions, joint accounts

• unequal earnings, longer relationships, children
• joint home, different contributions,
  joint/different accounts

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Financial arrangements during relationship

• both earning, no children
• joint home, equal contribution, joint accounts

• unequal earnings, longer relationships, children
• joint home, different contributions,
  joint/different accounts

• unequal earnings, children/assets from previous
  relationships
• sole-owned home, dependency.

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Financial arrangements during relationship

• both earning, no children
• joint home, equal contribution, joint accounts

• influence of previous relationships
• retained separate homes, equal ad hoc
  contributions

• unequal earnings, longer relationships, children
• joint home, different contributions,
  joint/different accounts

• unequal earnings, children/assets from previous
  relationships
• sole-owned home, dependency

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How does this come about?

• financial arrangements during relationship
• evolution of cohabitation and financial
  arrangements
• unspoken and contingent nature of jointness
• irrelevance of legal rights during relationship
• not enforcing full legal rights on separation
• not getting (adequate) legal advice
• assets too limited to make cohabitation law work
• inadequacy of current cohabitation law

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How far would the Law Commission proposals help?
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Jane Lewis jlewis_at_ncb.org.uk