Cohabitees’ rights plan is another attack on marriage
by Colin Hart, Coalition for Marriage:
MPs on the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee have said they want cohabiting couples to have the same financial rights as those who are married.
The committee has announced plans to look into what legal mechanisms are needed to treat the UK’s estimated 3.4 million cohabiting couples – roughly one in five of UK couples – the same as married ones when it comes to money and property.
When married couples divorce, property, including the family home, is by default split 50-50, though a judge may determine that the needs of children require the main carer to receive a greater share. A married spouse also by default inherits the property of their partner in the event of death.
For cohabiting couples, by contrast, there are no similar legal rules and the owner of the house would receive the full amount of any sale. There are also no default inheritance rights. Likewise, a cohabiting partner has no right to the lease of a rented home that is in their partner’s name if the partner leaves or dies, and no claim on their pension.
The MPs have decided that this is unfair. They are looking to formulate for the first time a statutory definition of living together in order to require all couples who live together to divide property 50-50 in the event of a split, and to grant bereaved partners equivalent inheritance rights to marriage.
See also:
Church may ditch ‘husband’ and ‘wife’, by Wallace B Henley, Christian Post: The Church of Scotland’s General Assembly will soon consider a proposal to erase “husband” and “wife” from its official marriage ceremony. Changing worldview and their inherent values are gradually bringing about a slow but accelerating fade of marriage as described in the Bible.
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