The Austin Lafferty Solicitors & Estate Agents Blog

A recent survey of divorce lawyers in America has found that 56% of respondents reported seeing an increase in the number of mothers paying child support during the past three years, while 47% also noted a rise in women being responsible for alimony throughout the same time period.

"The court system always ends up reflecting changes in our society and this is certainly the case with issues regarding who pays child support and alimony," said Ken Altshuler, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, which carried out the research.

"As more women achieve success on their career paths, they are also finding themselves increasingly responsible for financial obligations during and after the divorce process."

Single parent charity Gingerbread has commented on the release of new figures by the government that show there is at least £1 million of child maintenance arrears in each one of the 650 parliamentary constituencies.

Gingerbread’s Chief Executive, Fiona Weir, said: “These arrears have accumulated over many years. Not all of it will be collectable, sometimes for the simple reason that the parent liable to pay genuinely can’t afford it. But parents who are owed maintenance for their children need to know that the CSA has done all it can to enforce the responsibility to pay it.”

In just over a year’s time, all existing CSA cases will begin to be closed and parents will have to pay in future to have their child maintenance collected by the new Child Maintenance Service. Gingerbread is calling on the Government to do all it can to reduce the money owed to parents in the next year, so that these parents do not end up having to pay the new service to collect arrears that the CSA should have collected.

Recent research from America has found that there has been a 50% increase in the number of adults aged 45-63 who are unmarried, compared to the same age group in 1980. One third of this age group are divorced or never married, and only 10% of unmarried boomers are widowed.

The research, from  Bowling Green State University’s National Center for Family and Marriage Research, raises the concern that as this group ages, society will have to rethink how it cares for its elderly.

“The economic and health vulnerabilities of single boomers are concerning because boomers are now moving into old age when failing health becomes even more common and severe,” said researcher Dr. Susan Brown

“In the past, family members, particularly spouses, have provided care to infirm older adults. But a growing share of older adults aren’t going to have a spouse available to rely on for support. Our figures indicate one in three boomers won’t have a spouse who can care for them. And, unmarrieds are less likely to have children who might provide care. These shifting family patterns portend new strains on existing institutional supports for the elderly. As more singles enter older adulthood, we as a society may have to reconsider how we care for frail elders. The family may no longer be a viable option for an increasing segment of older adults.”

In the run up to Father's Day in June, the US Census Bureau has published a series of facts about the estimated 70.1 million fathers in America.

The data reveals that there were 24.7 million fathers who were part of married-couple families with children younger than 18 in 2011.

It also reveals that there were 1.7 million single fathers, and around 15% or all single parents in America were men. Around 45% of these single fathers were divorced, 31% were never married, 19% were separated, and 5% were widowed.

Custodial fathers in 2009 were due $3.5 billion in child support, but received only $1.9 billion. In contrast, custodial mothers received $19.5 billion of the $31.7 billion in support that was due. Around 34% of custodial fathers received all child support that was due in 2009, not significantly different from the corresponding percentage for custodial mothers, 42%.

The Minister in charge of the child maintenance system has promised intensive action against irresponsible parents who have failed to support their children after separation.

It comes as new figures show sharp increases in the use of key enforcement powers against parents who refuse to pay. Deduction Orders - where money is removed directly from debtor’s accounts - have trebled since 2009. Driving disqualifications for non-payment have risen eightfold since 2008.

Child Support Agency data also shows that more than 5,000 past and current CSA cases are over £50,000 in arrears.

Work and Pensions Minister Maria Miller:

“These shocking figures underline the long- term failure of a system that has let down countless families. We are now taking tougher action against those who have refused to pay. All parents who are still owed CSA arrears can be assured that we will take all reasonable steps to recover this money for them.”

Planned reforms to Scotland's children's hearings system will not now take effect until the second quarter of 2013, the Scottish Government has announced.

The agreed extension to the timetable comes after Children’s Hearings Scotland, the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and others across the sector requested more time to successfully deliver planned improvements to the hearings system. The current system will remain in place until the reforms come into effect, ensuring children continue to receive the support they need.

Children’s Hearings Scotland Chairman, Craig Spence said:

“Children’s Hearings Scotland and indeed the whole sector, is fully supportive of the decision by Ministers to have timescales which will deliver positive change for children. We will work closely with partners to ensure all aspects are in place to the right standard at the right time.

“The priority is to deliver a new system which continues to make a positive difference to Scotland’s children and families.”

A recent study from America has advised couples that regularly finding time to spend together on a 'date night' will bring real benefit to their relationship.  

The report found that married or cohabiting couples who manage to devote time specifically to one another at least once a week are markedly more likely to enjoy high-quality relationships and lower divorce rates, compared to couples who do not devote as much couple time to one another.

The report, from the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, also found that "couple time" is particularly valuable for couples who are less integrated into the local civic or religious fabric of their communities or for those less committed to one another.

"Taking time for your relationship – whether outside the home or inside the home – is good for your relationship health," said report co-author W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project. "This isn't rocket science, but it's an important reminder."

New research from America has found that the wellbeing of people is heavily influenced by whether they are married or divorced.

The survey, by Gallup, found that the Americans with the highest wellbeing score (68.8) were married. People who were divorced scored much lower (59.7), whilst the group with the lowest well-being score over all were people who were separated (55.9).

The research also tracked the wellbeing of people who were single (65.0), cohabiting (63.3), or whose partner had died (63.5).

The report does not suggest a definitive explanation for these results, but suggests that people who have a higher well-being score generally may be more likely to choose marriage than those with a lower well-being score. It also suggests that marriage can bring financial and other economic benefits for couples, whereas ending a marriage usually has negative economic consequences for people, which would affect their wellbeing score.

As the Northern Ireland Assembly carries out a debate on the subject of kinship care, the Fostering Network has called on the Government to launch a public awareness campaign to ensure kinship carers get the essential advice and support they need.

At a point of crisis when a child can no longer live with its birth parents, their families do not always have access to important information about the range of options available. This means they and the child could miss out on vital help and support they are entitled to receive.

Often the best option that could be available is formal kinship care, where the child could qualify for services that all children in care receive. The relative looking after the child could also access the finances, practical support and training on offer to foster carers.

Margaret Kelly, director of the Fostering Network Northern Ireland, said: “As the vast majority of formal kinship carers in Northern Ireland are our members we know how valuable they find access to the extra support available. The financial and practical support, as well as training and advice, makes a huge difference.

“However, we know too many families don’t have access to the right information at that challenging and critical time. A public awareness campaign would be an important step forward in ensuring these families are well informed and can make the right decision for them and the children.”

A recent study in Canada has found that people may be subconsciously influenced by how long they think they will live when making major life decisions such as marriage, divorce, abortion, having a child and attending university.

It is impossible to know how long someone is going to live, but there are many life expectancy cues not consciously processed, affecting how many more years people expect to live. These can include a person's state of health, a family's medical history or whether they have a high risk job.

The study, by researchers at Queens's University, found that the longer someone expects to live, the more time they will invest in education. If life expectancy is short, someone may decide to get married and have children sooner, or stick with the partner they are currently with rather than seek a divorce.

A recent study by Family Rights Group into kinship care in England has found that family and friends carers, who are raising some of the nation’s most vulnerable children, are not receiving sufficient support from local authorities.

When children are unable to live with either of their parents, official guidance stipulates they should be enabled to live with a member of their extended family or social network, provided this is feasible and in the child’s best interests. However, the study found that these kinship carers, caring for an estimated 250,000 children, are being left to fend for themselves and suffer significant levels of hardship.  

Key findings from the study include:

• One in five children (20%) being cared for by a friend or family member had first been placed in unrelated foster care before eventually being moved to a kinship arrangement, creating twice the upheaval and placing unnecessary burdens on an already stretched care system.
• Forty-five per cent of English local authorities had not published a family and friends care policy, more than five months after the government required them to do so.
• Almost half of carers (44%) surveyed said they had received no practical help from their local authority and 95% identified at least one form of support they had needed, but not received - most mentioned several. The great majority – more than 70% - rated the support they had received from their local authority as poor or very poor.

Shelter Scotland has reported a sharp rise in the number of visits to its website from women looking for help and advice on domestic abuse following its recent Facebook advertising campaign.

The campaign was launched to coincide with the weekend’s Old Firm football match which Strathclyde Police says is often the catalyst for a spike in reported incidents of domestic abuse. The charity saw a 600% increase in visits around the match compared with previous weekends when the same adverts had been running.

Alison Watson, Head of Services at Shelter Scotland, said: “These figures show that hundreds, perhaps thousands of people across Scotland, mainly women, went online last weekend to find advice and help on issues related to domestic abuse. And they weren’t just browsing. The average length of visit to our advice pages increased to several minutes.”

“With a 600% rise in visits to our domestic abuse advice pages, we think that reported cases may only be the tip of the ice-berg and that there could be hundreds more unreported cases of people living in fear of or suffering abuse.”

National charity, 4Children, has recently published the results of its research into conflict and violence in families.

The study found that four million families with children experience some sort of conflict within the home, and that 950,000 children are affected by domestic violence, either directly as victims of violence, or indirectly by witnessing violence.

Like many problems that can lead to family breakdown, family conflict and violence can often remain hidden within families for years because of a reluctance to openly admit to the problem and seek help.

4Children is calling on councils to wake-up to the true extent of conflict in families. Separate research by 4Children has revealed that almost half (46%) of local authorities do not have a domestic violence strategy which mentions violence committed by family members. One in ten (11%) don’t have a domestic violence strategy at all.

Anne Longfield OBE, Chief Executive of 4Children, said:

"Domestic violence is familiar ground, but family violence is often hidden from view. Conflict need not turn to violence if families get the help they need. Violence within the family threatens lives, breaks up families and has severe ongoing psychological and physical effects on hundreds of thousands of parents and children every year.

“Family violence is one of the biggest causes of family crisis in the UK, one which puts lives at risk, isolates people, undermines good mental health and costs the taxpayer in excess of £3.1bn per year  in costs to the NHS, the courts and social services. 4Children's Give Me Strength campaign is focused on getting Government and the whole of society to work together to prevent family crisis.

"Even more worryingly, children who face or witness family violence in the home are significantly more likely to commit other crimes in later life. Up to 79% of those identified as the most troubled families in some authorities are living with domestic violence and in some areas three quarters of children on child protection orders are on the registers because of concerns over domestic violence in the family. Unless urgent action is taken, it is clear that this cycle of violence will continue to plague families for generations to come."

Think-tank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has accused the Government of missing a chance in its latest budget to tackle the problem of family breakdown.

The CSJ says that while it welcomes the removal of the ‘cliff edge’ from the proposed child benefit reforms, the introduction of a gradual withdrawal of child benefit from households with one individual or more earning above £50,000 still provides a financial disincentive against couple formation and commitment.

The new model could also lead to a greater risk of benefit fraud, as couples who are cohabiting but not married will have to decide whether to voluntarily to inform the tax authorities of their personal arrangements, or deny the status of their relationship and continuing to claim the benefit.

The CSJ believes that eliminating this couple penalty is possible and affordable by integrating child benefit into the tax credit system. This measure would support the principle of wealthier families no longer receiving child benefit, but do so in a way that does not undermine two parent families and the aspiration of many lone parents to form couple relationships. According to the CSJ, failure to deal with these primary weaknesses reveals the Government’s disregard, in this instance, of family stability and marriage.

 

The Fostering Network has issued a warning to the Scottish Government that foster children will not have all their basic needs met unless they receive proper financial support.

All foster carers receive a weekly allowance, which is designed to cover the costs of caring for a fostered child, from clothing to food and toys to books.

However, the charity has published the results of a new survey, which found that in 2011-12, 69% of local authorities gave their foster carers allowances below the Fostering Network’s recommended rates.

The Fostering Network’s recommended minimum allowances start at around £130 per week and increase with the age of the child, and are largely accepted as the benchmark for the costs incurred as the result of fostering.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland there are recommended minimum allowance levels set by governments. But in Scotland, while guidance suggests local authorities should pay attention to the Fostering Network’s recommended minimum rates when setting their own allowances, the Scottish Government does not enforce this and local authorities are free to set their own allowances. This means children in neighbouring councils could be treated very differently with some receiving as much as £100 more a week.

Over 5,000 children were living with 3,300 foster families on 31 July 2011 in Scotland, which is an increase of 7% over the same time the previous year.

The Fostering Network is now urging the Scottish Government to introduce a statutory minimum allowance for all fostered children and to ensure that local authorities are properly funded to pay this rate to all foster carers.

The UK government had recently launched a consultation on how to lift the ban on same-sex couples marrying in a civil ceremony in England and Wales.

The consultation will seek views on how to change civil marriage only, not religious marriage, and makes the following key proposals:

• to open civil marriage ceremonies to same-sex couples;
• to make no changes to religious marriages – these will continue to remain only legally recognised if between a man and a woman;
• to retain civil partnerships for same-sex couples and allow couples already in a civil partnership to convert it into a marriage; and
• to allow people to stay married and legally change their gender.

The Scottish Government has recently carried out a similar consultation on same sex marriage and religious ceremonies for civil partnerships in Scotland. The consultation set out the Scottish Government's initial view, which is that same sex marriage should be introduced but that faith groups and their celebrants should not be obliged to solemnise same sex marriages. The consultation closed in December 2011.

 

Fathers who no longer live with their partners and are on benefits should be made to work if they refuse to take financial responsibility for their children, claims think tank Policy Exchange in a new report.

The report calls for the government to target these individuals and fast track them on to work experience schemes to try and get them back into the labour market. Men who refuse to participate should have their benefits removed.

The report notes that other countries, particularly the US and Germany, have been far more successful in making sure that absent fathers on benefits are taking on their parental responsibilities.

The report says that it is time the government forced these men to take responsibility for their actions. It makes a number of recommendations, including:

• Imposing work obligations on absent fathers claiming benefits.
• Requiring both mother and father to include their names on the birth certificate.
• Keeping child maintenance payments in place for each child regardless if the parent goes on to have more children with new partners.

The report also recommends exempting single parents claiming Income Support from paying a fee to access the Child Support Agency (CSA).

According to Policy Exchange, the government’s proposals to introduce charges are a sensible attempt to push those parents who are capable of making their own arrangements into doing so. However, the new arrangements will mean people on benefits paying £50 to access the CSA, the equivalent to almost a week of Income Support. If they are trying to chase payment from an absent father on benefits who is obliged to pay £5 a week, the total they can expect to gain over a year from the CSA would be £260.

Therefore, charging to access the CSA would deter those who most need financial support from accessing the service.

 

The Registrar General has published preliminary births, deaths and other vital events figures for 2011.

The number of deaths in Scotland fell to 53,661 in 2011, the lowest number since records began in 1855. This was 306 (0.6%) fewer than in 2010, and 195 (0.4%) below the previous lowest number (which was 53,856 in 2009).

The number of births registered in 2011 was 58,592 – 199 (0.3%) fewer than in 2010. The figures also show that 51% of births were to unmarried parents, the highest percentage recorded. There were 29,135 marriages in 2011 – 655 (2.3%) more than in 2010 and the highest figure since 2007.

Commenting on the provisional totals of vital events registered during 2011, Registrar General for Scotland George MacKenzie said:

“The preliminary number of divorces reported to us has again fallen slightly, this time to 9,814, though the final figure may be a little higher once we get all the late returns. The decline is not unexpected. We have seen a drop in the number of divorces each year since a peak in 2006 when the Family Law (Scotland) Act reduced separation periods.

“There were increases in the numbers of stillbirths, infant deaths, adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships formed and civil partnerships dissolved.”

 

Recent research from America has found that over 140,000 same-sex couples have formalised their relationship under state law in the United State, and nearly 50,000 same-sex couples have married. 

These findings, from a new Williams Institute study, are based on state administrative data from those states where same-sex couples can marry, enter civil unions or domestic partnerships, or enter other legal relationship statuses. The study also finds that same-sex couples prefer marriage over other non-marital legal relationship statuses.

“We see a lot of evidence that same-sex couples strongly prefer marriage over civil unions or domestic partnerships. Same-sex couples marry at higher rates in the first year they have the option than we see in civil union states, for example,” said M.V. Lee Badgett, Research Director of The Williams Institute. “Our findings are consistent with other research showing that couples value marriage more for its social meaning than for its practical benefits.”

The study also provides a snapshot of the couples who enter legally-recognized relationship statuses. These couples are predominantly female, tend to be younger than currently married different-sex couples, and tend to be older than newly-married different-sex couples. When a state allows marriage for same-sex couples, couples will travel to that state to marry from other states in which they do not enjoy that same opportunity.

For many years, January was widely considered "Divorce Month" by divorce attorneys who experienced a dramatic upturn in business immediately following the holiday season.

However, according to a new analysis of divorce filings and searches for divorce-related information on the Internet, March is the true "Divorce Month" in America.

According to American company FindLaw, searches for "divorce" and related phrases such as "family law" and "child custody" jumped 50% from just over 10,000 in December 2010, to nearly 16,000 in January 2011, and continued to surge through March.

Along these same lines, analysis of divorce filings across the U.S. between 2008 and 2011 revealed that divorces spike in January, continue to rise and peak in late March.