Spousal Maintenance in Scotland

This is support that you might be entitled to until your marriage or partnership is dissolved, which may take some time. This is called aliment. The obligation to support stems from your legal relationship of being married or in a civil partnership, so when that relationship ends in divorce or dissolution, then this support stops too.

At the point of divorce or dissolution, depending on what you have received by way of a financial settlement, you might in certain situations be entitled to continuing monthly financial support, although the legal term for that is then ‘periodical allowance’ rather than ‘aliment’.

It is normal for parties to try and agree between them who is to pay what after separation, such as the mortgage, rent, Council Tax and utility bills. It can be that existing arrangements might continue for a while, such as both salaries going into a joint account with all Direct Debits coming off that account. 

If, however, you are not able to reach an agreement or one party refuses to pay anything then you can apply to the court for an award of interim aliment or spousal maintenance.   

If you have children then your ex-partner may have to pay support for them separately. This is a separate issue from spousal maintenance and is covered in our Child Maintenance section.  

As long as you are married or in a civil partnership, it is possible for one party to raise an action in court for interim aliment. 

The amount awarded will  be a balance between the needs of the party seeking it and the resources of the paying party .

• the party seeking the aliment will have to take into account their own income from all sources including benefits, and;
• the party who is being asked to pay the aliment will consider what their reasonable costs and liabilities are, including any sums they may have to pay for children.

It very much depends on what the judge thinks is reasonable taking all the circumstances into account. The court can also take into account the earning capacity of both parties, in other words if one party is not working but is capable of doing so and there are jobs available.

This is a very different means of deciding the level of maintenance from that used for child maintenance as there is no ‘formula’ base. The reason for that is child maintenance is assessed by a Government body the Child Maintenance Service, whereas spousal maintenance is a balance between needs and resources and the court has a wide discretion to make what award they think is appropriate.

Spousal maintenance, or interim aliment, will last as long as you are still married or in a civil partnership. It stops when you are divorced or the partnership is dissolved.  However, the amount of aliment can be varied before that date if there is a material change of circumstance of either party, for example if your ex loses their job, they may apply to have any award reduced.  

The divorce or dissolution will normally mean that all the assets that you have will have been divided fairly between you. If, however, these are inadequate for you or if there is very little in the way of assets to divide then you can ask for an order at the time of the divorce or dissolution for continuing spousal maintenance, called periodical allowance.

The courts will usually make these periodical allowance awards for a specific period, which might be a maximum of three years although it can be longer. The courts can make these awards in certain circumstances, for example if:

• There are few assets to divide and/or
• You have never worked throughout the course of the marriage and would now find it difficult to gain employment of any sort and your ex is still in good employment

Each case very much depends on its own circumstances.

If your ex refuses to pay then you can ask the Sheriff Officers to take enforcement action. Full powers are available for any non-payment of debt, such as an attachment of arresting order, and inhibition preventing a sale of a house or attaching assets.

Non-compliance of payment of aliment can also mean that you can apply to the court for civil imprisonment. This is unusual but technically is available.