Spousal Maintenance Calculator

Spousal maintenance, once called alimony, is a regular payment made by one ex-spouse to the other after a divorce. Nothing about it is automatic. It turns on two questions: whether one party has a financial need they cannot meet from their own resources, and whether the other actually has the means to pay. If the answer to either is no, no order follows.

Beyond need and ability to pay, the court looks at the income gap between the parties, what each could reasonably earn, the standard of living during the marriage, the ages of both, how long the marriage lasted, who is caring for the children, and the contributions each made, including the unpaid ones. It also asks how long the receiving party needs in order to become financially independent. An order can run for a fixed term, or on a joint lives basis ending on remarriage or death.

There is no formula in England and Wales, unlike child maintenance, which is worked out to a set rule. Judges use their discretion under section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, and ongoing payments now rest mainly on the recipient's reasonable needs. The old one-third starting point from Wachtel v Wachtel (1973) took a third of the combined incomes less the recipient's own income, so £65,000 and £20,000 gave £85,000 ÷ 3 − £20,000 = £8,333 a year, but courts no longer use it. This calculator shows 20%, 25% and 33% of the gap between the two incomes as a rough range: on £8,000 a month against £3,000 a month, that is £1,000 to £1,650 a month.

The direction of travel since 2014 has been away from open-ended orders. Courts now favour transitional awards, limited in time, on the basis that the receiving party should be moving towards financial independence rather than being supported indefinitely. Lump-sum settlements have become more common for the same reason, and judges tend to encourage them where the assets allow. Scotland is stricter still: under section 9(1)(d) of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 1985, support for a spouse who was financially dependent is limited to three years from the divorce, and longer awards need serious financial hardship.

A clean break is a one-off settlement that closes off future financial claims entirely, achieved through a capital lump sum, a pension share, a property transfer or some combination of the three. Ongoing maintenance keeps the parties tied together, with monthly payments that either side can apply to vary on a material change in circumstances, such as job loss, a new partner or retirement. Remarriage by the recipient ends maintenance automatically. Cohabitation does not, though whether it makes any difference depends on how the order was worded.

Tax works differently here from the American system many people have in mind. Maintenance is paid out of post-tax income and the payer usually gets no deduction. Maintenance Payments Relief survives only where either spouse was born before 6 April 1935, and is worth 10% of payments up to £4,530 in 2026/27, at most £453 a year. The recipient takes it tax-free and does not declare it. The practical effect is that a £1,000 a month payment costs a higher-rate taxpayer more than £1,700 a month of gross earnings to fund. A lump sum is treated the same way, though transferring assets such as shares instead of cash can trigger capital gains tax.

Costs vary more than almost any other part of a divorce. Mediation runs from £1,000 to £3,000 in total, and a financial consent order lodged with the court costs £62. Negotiating through solicitors costs each side somewhere between £2,000 and £8,000. Fighting it out in court runs from £15,000 to £100,000 or more each. A MIAM, the mediation information and assessment meeting, has been compulsory before court since 2014. Both parties complete a Form E financial disclosure, pension valuations come from the provider as a CETV figure, and forensic accountants charge £2,000 to £10,000 where assets are thought to be hidden. Courts work to a 12-week target from the first hearing to the final order.