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Cost of living crisis, relationships and divorce

ended 10. February 2023

A journalist at The Times is writing a piece on the impact of the cost of living crisis on relationships and whether it has resulted in an uptick in divorce applications (and even people separating and still living together as they cannot afford to move out/sell the house). After all, money worries can put all kinds of pressure on relationships. If you'd like to contribute, please answer the following three Qs:

  • With inflation in double digits and interest rates rising, have you seen a rise in divorce applications due to money pressures? 
  • Have you seen any instances where couples have divorced or separated but are still living together as they cannot afford to move out?
  • Recent data from the Insolvency Service showed a sharp rise in business insolvencies during the final three months of 2022. With more firms expected to go bust in 2023, do you expect that to trigger more divorce enquiries (i.e. do business failures impact relationships)?

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Tahina Akther
Barrister and Co-Founder at Wildcat Law
Very few things put more pressure on a relationship than money worries. This is why every recession we see a wave of broken marriages. This current period is following the trend but with a significant difference, there are more and more unmarried couples separating.

Whilst the law has protection in place for married couples there is a significant chasm in legal protection to unmarried couples. This disproportionately impacts women. This leads in some cases to women being unable to exit failed relationships due to being unable to support themselves financially. This is especially so for older couples as unmarried partners have no access to pension sharing, unlike married couples. They are also less likely to be able to access legal proceedings due to their limited financial resources in these situations.
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Joshua Gerstler
Chartered Financial Planner at The Orchard Practice
"We have seen couples deciding that they no longer want to be together but not being able to afford to separate. For most of these couples it all seems to be amicable and they are coping, however, having decided they no longer want to be together it is, of course, causing further stress for them. Often one of the couples is earning more than the other and the higher earner can afford to either take over the property or buy somewhere else, but the lower earner cannot. Luckily we have seen mortgage rates start to come down over the past month or so and it is making life easier for some."