Over the course of time, relationship habits, wants and priorities have changed and evolved to become more inclusive but also more aware, especially when it comes to finances and shared assets. The Coronavirus has very much created added pressure when it comes to divorce as people begin to think differently about their choices.
Putting off divorce
The lockdown has caused schools to close, businesses to collapse and couples to avoid getting divorced. A YouGov survey reported 28% of the participants were less likely to pursue a divorce because of the pandemic.
The concern is that, as more couples put divorce on hold and continue to live in a lockdown situation, this may cause more issues down the line, not only for the couple but also children living at home.
Well-being issues play a huge part in this scenario, it’s no secret that regardless of whether you were considering divorce or not, living in lockdown during a pandemic has had some serious issues on people’s mental health.
The inability to visit family, friends and go about a normal daily routine, has left many with increased anxiety with 39% of those being married or in a civil partnership reporting they experienced higher anxiety then before the lockdown began.
Involvement of the in-laws
An interesting article reported from This is Money, shared an insight into how parents are holding on to their inheritance for longer, out of a fear their child will lose it to their partner if they divorce.
Some of this fear has stemmed from couples increasingly making the decision to start the process of divorce during Coronavirus as lockdown measures increase the strain on relationships. Between March and May of 2020 alone, some services saw an increase of divorce enquiries by over 40% when compared to the previous year.
Naturally grandparents would want this wealth to go to their own children or grandchildren but with some in-laws afraid their assets will go to a partner who is bad with money, financial support is being trickled down the tree in order to control who their inheritance is
going to, to ensure it reaches the right person.
The negative impact of this is of course, should an ex-partner find out they were purposely left out of receiving inheritance from their in-laws, the relationship could suffer more and even impact the other partner and any children involved.
Another question to ask is, would one half of the partnership try to hurry going through a divorce, simply to access their parents inheritance or would they stay in an unhappy relationship, knowing there could be increased negative backlash from pushing someone out of the relationship.
No-Fault Divorce is on the horizon
There is some light at the end of the tunnel however, as finally, as of autumn 2021 couples will have the opportunity to separate from their partner, with then no other reason than they simply don’t want to be together anymore.
For too long couples have had to identify from one of the 5 grounds for divorce to show the marriage has irretrievably broken down and cannot be saved.
However as some couples have simply out-grown each other and may want different things in life, this system has caused many additional issues on finance and mental health as the process could not move forward without some type of blame, even if there wasn’t any.
Seeing as divorce is often referred to as the second most traumatic life experience after a death of a loved one, a no-fault divorce system couldn’t come soon enough.
K J Smith Solicitors are specialists in family law, experienced in all matters relating to divorce, civil partnerships, cohabitation disputes and collaborative law.
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