The government has opened a consultation on overhauling the financial rules that apply when unmarried couples split up, in a move ministers say is designed to better reflect how many families now live. The proposals would give qualifying cohabiting partners a clearer route to claim a share of property, pensions and other assets, while also extending inheritance rights when one partner dies without leaving a will.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the plan forms part of a broader effort to bring family law “into the modern age” and to reduce the hardship that can follow the end of a relationship. Ministers argue that the current system leaves unmarried couples with far weaker protections than married couples, a gap they say can hit women, children and victims of domestic abuse particularly hard.
Under the consultation, courts could be given powers similar to those used in divorce cases, but in a narrower form to preserve the legal distinction between marriage and cohabitation. Possible remedies include property adjustment orders, pension sharing, lump-sum payments and, in exceptional cases, limited maintenance orders. The government says the framework would apply only to couples who have lived together for at least three years, or who have a child together, and only where the court is satisfied that they were in an enduring family relationship.
The proposals also seek to make pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements legally binding in England and Wales, a change that would reduce the uncertainty that currently surrounds such arrangements. The government says that if the reforms are adopted, couples would be able to enter enforceable contracts about what happens to their finances on separation, although safeguards would still be required.
Inheritance rights are another major part of the package. At present, unmarried partners have no automatic entitlement to inherit if their partner dies without a will, even after years of living together. The consultation says qualifying cohabitants should instead receive rights more like those of spouses or civil partners.
David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, said the changes were intended to create a fairer system at a time of financial pressure and to better protect people who have suffered bereavement or domestic abuse. The consultation began on 5 June and ran for 10 weeks, closing on 14 August, ministers will now consider next steps and bring forward legislation when parliamentary time allows.
The move comes against a wider backdrop of changing family structures. The Marriage Foundation has found that around a fifth of couples now sign prenups before marriage, up from 8% in the 1990s, underlining growing demand for clearer financial planning within relationships. Campaigners and legal commentators have long argued that the law has lagged behind social change, leaving many cohabiting couples to discover too late that they have few automatic rights.
