The Austin Lafferty Solicitors & Estate Agents Blog

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."

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.

Recent research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies has found that children of married couples have higher levels of learning and social and emotional development than children of cohabiting parents or single mothers.

However, according to the authors, the differences in children's development were explained by the family's financial circumstances, mother's educational level and parenting approaches rather than the marital status of their parents.

According to researcher Ruth Weston, the study found that 31% of married mothers had a university degree or higher level of education compared to 15% of single and cohabiting mothers. Married mothers were also more likely to be employed and married couple families were less likely to experience financial hardships.

Cohabiting parent families were slightly worse off financially than married parent families but slightly better off than families headed by single mothers. However, of particular concern was the fact that the gaps between the children of single mothers and those living with married parents appeared to widen over time.

Ms Weston said the study also compared parents' reports on their approaches to parenting across the three types of families, and found there were differences between the groups regarding the extent to which they adopted a consistent approach to parenting. Married parents reported greater consistency in parenting than cohabiting couples or single mothers.

Partners provide a vital source of positive emotional support for the vast majority of people in the UK. Nine out of ten people who were married or cohabiting talk to their partner about their worries, according to data from Understanding Society, the world’s largest longitudinal household study of 40,000 UK households. Around 94% of those surveyed rely on their partner for support when a problem crops up.

As part of the Understanding Society study of 40,000 UK households, researchers asked people how much personal and emotional support they felt they received from not only their spouse/partner, but also other family members and friends. Respondents were also asked to rate negative support from their partner, other family members and friends including how much they felt criticised and let down by those people.

“Spouses or partners were largely described as providing positive support,” explains Professor Heather Laurie, Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. “Some 88% of respondents said their partner understood the way they feel, with only 10% admitting that they had felt let down by their partner when they were counting on them.”

Understanding where people receive emotional support from is important, researchers argue, because existing evidence suggests a ‘buffering effect’ of having positive social support in the face of shocks such as divorce, ill-health, bereavement, or losing your job. Having positive and strong social support also appears linked with better psychological and physical health.

The Scottish Government has recently announced changes to the law that will enable more people to stay in their homes if their husband, wife or civil partner has died without making a will. These changes follow a consultation on these areas of succession law that took place earlier this year.

Currently, if a home-owner dies without making a will, their spouse or civil partner might have to sell the family home if it was worth more than £300,000. The changes announced by the Government mean that, with effect from 1st February 2012, this house value limit will be increased to £473,000.

The Scottish Government has also announced that the financial limits where a sheriff clerk can prepare an inventory and declaration to finalise an estate without the need for a solicitor will be increased to £36,000.

Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, Roseanna Cunningham, said:

"These small but much needed changes will offer protection for those who have lost a loved one and are left to deal with the consequences when no will has been made.

"The increase in limits to £473,000 means that most people in Scotland will be able to stay in the family home they shared with their spouse or civil partner, sparing them the distress and disruption of leaving their homes at such a difficult time.

"These are additional safeguards when an individual has not left a will. It is a reminder to us all just how important a document a will can be.”

Both of these changes are due to be made by negative resolution of a statutory instrument in the Scottish Parliament and are due to come into force on 1st February 2012. They were both last increased in 2005.