Spousal Maintenance is a complex issue which often leads to much debate during financial proceedings on divorce. This is largely due to the oft-cited claim that such maintenance payments are a “meal ticket for life” by obliging one spouse to maintain the lifestyle of their former spouse for the rest of their life. However, an analysis of legislation and recent cases highlights the courts’ approach is, in reality, not to use Spousal Maintenance as a “meal ticket for life” but rather to use it as a temporary (when possible) safeguard from hardship for the financially weaker spouse until they are able to stand on their own two feet.
