The government is planning a significant change to the financial rights of unmarried cohabiting couples in England and Wales, with a proposed new 'three-year rule' for qualifying for legal protections. The plans were outlined on BBC Radio 4's Moneybox live programme, affecting an estimated 3.5 million couples living together without being married or in a civil partnership.
Currently, unmarried partners have no automatic legal right to inherit from a deceased partner, regardless of how long they lived together or whether they have children. Presenter Felicity Hannah explained: "Major changes could be on the way for the financial rights of many unmarried people. There are 3.5million UK couples living in unwedded bliss."
Government Proposes Legal Framework for Cohabiting Couples
Under the plans, individuals could gain access to a share of a house sale to help secure their financial future. The government said the current 'outdated' system offers unmarried couples who live together limited financial rights if their relationship ends, and problems arise if people separate and one person is financially dependent on another.
The government said the plan will help couples, including survivors of domestic abuse, gain financial security and independence at the end of a cohabitating relationship, 'whatever their marital status'.
Lawyer Highlights Current Legal Gaps
Hannah Saxe, a specialist family solicitor at Brabners law firm, said: "There is very limited remedies available on relationship breakdowns for unmarried families and there's a common misconception you can be someone's common law spouse. That's the idea that if you live together for a long time, or you've got children together, you would be treated the same as a husband or a wife if you split up."
"That's not actually the case. There's no single piece of law about what happens in terms of money on relationship breakdown if you're not married. You can't claim against your partner's pension, or their savings and investments, and there's no responsibility between cohabiting partners to support the other financially if they've done something like giving up their job to stay home and look after the children. There are claims you can make in relation to property but they come under property and trust law that's not really designed with families in mind."
Qualifying Criteria and Next Steps
Ms Saxe explained how the law could change: "What the government is proposing is that there is a specific statutory framework for unmarried couples on relationship breakdown and that could potentially involve a right to a property transfer, the right to a payment of a capital sum, a right to a pension sharing order and in some exceptional cases the right to maintenance."
"But the remedies being proposed are much more narrow than those available to married couples on divorce. And the couple would have to meet certain qualifying criteria for the law to apply to them."
Felicity Hannah asked: "So it's not as soon as you move in - bam here are all these rights?" Ms Saxe said: "No that's right and there's talk of a three-year relationship qualifying and also if you have a child together. So it is much more narrow than if you're married."
The consultation will also explore whether courts should give greater weight to the impact of domestic abuse, including controlling or coercive behaviour or economic abuse, when assessing finances for married couples and cohabitants. People are now awaiting the government's response to the consultation answers.
