Spousal Maintenance to Increase Due to Inflation

When couples get divorced, the Courts have the power to make a Spousal Maintenance or Periodical Payments Order. That order can be for joint lives or term maintenance for a specific period of time to allow one spouse to adapt to not being financially dependent upon their former spouse.

 

It has become usual practice for those orders to be linked to being self-varying by way of being automatically increased due to the percentage change of either the retail prices index or consumer prices index. However, this was in the days of inflation at 1 to 3%.

With inflation and indexes rising, this will mean an increased amount of maintenance will be paid if you have a self-varying maintenance order.

There are clear benefits of having indexation to avoid having to revisit the legal process again as circumstances change, but please bear in mind that inflation has risen passed 10%. The RPI is at 14%. The CPI is at 10.7%*. Think carefully when agreeing to these orders.

If you have questions regarding separation or divorce, please contact Aaron Keene, Partner at The Wilkes Partnership on [email protected] or call 0121 233 4333.

*Correct at the time of writing