Following the breakdown of a marriage or de facto relationship,
one party can often find themselves in a significantly weaker
financial position than their former spouse. This can come about as
a result of a variety of factors. One common scenario involves one
party essentially giving up career advancement to care for the
parties' children. As a result the party who continued to work
throughout this period will have a higher income earning capacity
than their partner - who may not have worked or only worked on a
part time basis over a period of several years.
In these circumstances a former partner may have to provide
ongoing support to the financially weaker party to cover any
shortfall between their reasonable living expenses and their
available income. This financial support is called "spousal
maintenance".
