1. Applying for Spousal Maintenance
What Is Spousal Maintenance?
Spousal maintenance is financial support provided by one party to a marriage to the other party where the receiving person cannot adequately support themselves.
For eligible de facto relationships, similar provisions allow a former de facto partner to seek maintenance after the relationship has broken down.
It is important not to confuse spousal maintenance with child support.
Child support is intended to contribute towards the financial needs of children. Spousal maintenance concerns the reasonable financial needs of a spouse or former partner themselves.
Depending on the circumstances, maintenance may be dealt with through periodic payments or other financial arrangements. What is appropriate will depend heavily on the individual financial circumstances of the people involved.
Am I Entitled to Spousal Maintenance?
There is no blanket rule saying one person must financially support the other simply because their relationship has ended.
Broadly, two questions matter most:
Can one person adequately support themselves?
And:
Does the other person have the financial capacity to provide assistance?
The Court considers the applicant’s needs as well as the respondent’s capacity to pay. Factors can include age and health, income and financial resources, ability to work, care of children, the effect of family violence, an appropriate standard of living and the effect the relationship may have had on someone’s earning capacity.
For example, one person may have stepped away from their career for several years to care for the children.
Another person may have a medical condition that limits the hours they can work.
Someone else may be capable of returning to work but need a reasonable period of time to retrain or regain financial independence.
There is no single formula that provides the answer.
That is why simply comparing two salaries is rarely enough.
Quill Legal can review the full financial circumstances and give you a clearer understanding of whether seeking spousal maintenance is appropriate and what evidence may be required.
What Information Will I Need?
Financial evidence is important in maintenance matters.
Depending on your circumstances, we may need to consider information relating to:
- Your income and employment
- Your regular living expenses
- Mortgage or rental payments
- Assets and liabilities
- Savings and other financial resources
- Medical or health-related expenses
- Your ability to obtain employment or increase your working hours
- The care arrangements and expenses associated with children
- Child support being paid or received
- Other significant financial commitments
The objective is to build an accurate picture, not an exaggerated one.
The better the financial information available, the easier it becomes to identify what your reasonable needs are and whether the other party genuinely has capacity to assist.
2. Responding to a Spousal Maintenance Claim
Receiving a request or application for spousal maintenance can be confronting, particularly where you are already dealing with the financial consequences of separation yourself.
You may have a mortgage, rent, children, debts and ordinary household expenses to pay. Supporting two separate households from income that previously supported one is not always simple.
The law takes that into account.
A maintenance claim does not look only at what the applicant needs. The ability of the other person to pay is also fundamental.
Quill Legal can help you assess the claim objectively.
We can examine:
- What expenses the other party says they cannot meet
- Whether those expenses are reasonable
- Their current income
- Their assets and financial resources
- Their capacity to work
- Whether their circumstances may change
- Your income and financial position
- Your own reasonable living expenses
- Your liabilities and financial commitments
- Your responsibilities for children or other dependants
Sometimes a genuine maintenance need exists, but the amount requested is unrealistic.
In other circumstances, the financial evidence may not support the claim at all.
And sometimes both parties agree that temporary support is reasonable but disagree about how much should be paid or how long payments should continue.
Our role is to help you separate the financial facts from the emotion surrounding the relationship breakdown.
Where a reasonable agreement can be negotiated, we will work towards one.
Where a claim is disputed, we can respond appropriately and represent your position.
Do not simply agree to ongoing payments because you feel pressured or assume that earning the higher income automatically makes you responsible for whatever amount is requested.
It pays to understand your position first.
3. Urgent and Interim Spousal Maintenance
Sometimes a person seeking maintenance does not have the luxury of waiting for every financial issue arising from the separation to be resolved.
There may be an immediate difficulty paying rent or a mortgage.
Bills may be accumulating.
A parent caring for children may have very limited access to income.
A person who was financially dependent throughout the relationship may suddenly have no practical means of meeting their everyday expenses.
Australian family law provides for urgent maintenance in appropriate circumstances where a person is in immediate need of financial assistance and it is not practicable for the Court to immediately determine the broader maintenance proceedings.
If you find yourself in that position, getting advice early is important.
Quill Legal can assess the urgency of your circumstances, explain what financial information needs to be prepared and advise you about the appropriate steps.
We can also assist if you are responding to an urgent or interim application.
An urgent application does not remove the need for the financial circumstances of both parties to be considered. If an amount is being sought from you, we can help ensure the Court receives an accurate picture of what you can realistically afford.
Interim Maintenance While Other Matters Continue
Spousal maintenance is often only one part of a much bigger separation.
You may also be dealing with:
- Property settlement
- Parenting arrangements
- Divorce
- Child support
- Sale or transfer of the family home
- Business interests
- Joint liabilities
It may therefore be necessary to put a temporary financial arrangement in place while those broader matters are being worked through.
We will help you look at the overall situation rather than treating maintenance in isolation.
Sometimes the best strategy is not simply about what happens this month. It is about reaching an arrangement that makes sense alongside the eventual property and financial settlement.
4. De Facto Maintenance
You do not necessarily need to have been married for maintenance to become an issue.
After the breakdown of an eligible de facto relationship, one former partner may be able to seek financial maintenance from the other if the relevant requirements under Australian family law are satisfied.
As with spousal maintenance following a marriage, financial need alone is not the whole equation.
The circumstances of both former partners need to be considered, including whether the applicant can adequately support themselves and whether the other person has the capacity to assist.
There are also requirements that determine whether the family law provisions relating to de facto financial matters apply to a particular relationship.
Rather than assuming that being in a de facto relationship automatically gives you the same claim in every circumstance, speak to a lawyer who can look at the facts first.
Quill Legal can assist with both sides of a de facto maintenance matter.
We can help if you:
- Need financial support after leaving a de facto relationship
- Have received a request for maintenance
- Need advice about whether your relationship falls within the relevant provisions
- Are negotiating maintenance together with a property settlement
- Need to formalise an agreement
- Are dealing with court proceedings
Time Limits for De Facto Maintenance
Timing is particularly important.
Applications for de facto maintenance are generally required to be commenced within two years of the breakdown of the de facto relationship. Starting proceedings after that period ordinarily requires permission from the Court.
Do not leave it until the deadline is approaching before working out what you want to do.
An early consultation gives you time to understand your rights, gather information and make a considered decision.
