If you’re getting divorced or dissolving your civil partnership in Scotland, you each have an obligation to support each other financially until it’s finalised. Find out how you can arrange aliment (regular maintenance payments) during this time and what you could get or pay.
What’s in this guide
Aliment payments
In Scotland, married couples and civil partners are legally required to provide financial support for each other. This is called ‘aliment’.
While you’re living together, this obligation is usually met simply by sharing a home and household costs. But if you decide to divorce or end your civil partnership, this support must continue until the process is complete or you reach a financial agreement with your ex-partner.
If you can’t agree how much should be paid, or if payments will be made at all, the partner who believes they need support can apply to the court for interim aliment payments.
Aliment payments are usually a fixed amount paid weekly or monthly. They are intended to help you with reasonable living expenses while you're separated.
If you need ongoing financial support after your divorce or dissolution is finalised, you’ll need to apply for periodical allowance – read more in our guide Clean break or periodical allowance on divorce or dissolution in Scotland.
Applying to the courts for aliment
You can ask the court for an aliment order when you start the divorce or dissolution process.
You can also apply before proceedings start if needed, for example, if you're separated but not yet able to apply for divorce or dissolution.
You can make an application if:
at least one of you lives in Scotland permanently, or
the person asking for payments usually lives in Scotland.
A court will look at whether the person claiming aliment needs the payments, and if the person being asked to pay can afford them.
If you’re not sure about your ex-partner’s financial situation, and they don’t have the money to pay you, you might end up spending money on court and legal fees for no reason.
A solicitor can advise you about whether this type of application is worthwhile – there will be a fee for this. If you don’t think you can afford a solicitor, see our guide Legal aid and other help if you can't afford divorce or separation fees.
What you need to apply to the courts
If you decide to go ahead and apply to the courts, you’ll need to provide a short written statement setting out your financial situation. This should include details of:
what you need on a day-to-day basis in the short term
your current income, including your salary and any investments
any government support or benefits you receive
your earning capacity, including details of job applications and childcare commitments
- what money you have already received from your ex-partner (such as child maintenance).
The court decides whether aliment should be awarded – and if so, how much – by looking at all the circumstances of the case. It can also decide if payments should be backdated to a particular date.
This includes looking at the overall amount of money available, as well as how much the person being asked to pay aliment could earn. It won’t just look at how much income that person has.
You can apply to the court to change (vary) or cancel (recall) an aliment award.
When you divorce or dissolve your civil partnership, you should either agree how to end the aliment arrangement or make an application to the court, as the divorce or dissolution itself brings the obligation of support to an end.
Child maintenance
Child maintenance is something you can arrange as soon as you separate.
It’s usually paid to the parent who the child lives with most or all of the time by the other parent.
You don’t need to have finalised your divorce or dissolution to arrange child maintenance.
There are several different ways that you and your ex-partner can agree child maintenance.
Find out more in our guide How to arrange child maintenance.
Your next step
It might also be worth reading our guide How to deal with problem debt after separation.
