The divorce process has assumed ever greater significance in debates concerning family structuring, individual economic stability and conflict resolution. But debate has concentrated on the end of this process rather than its beginning. Much less attention has been paid to how families adjust to the short-term changes arising from a decision to end a marriage. A team at Cardiff University, led by Gillian Douglas and Mervyn Murch and managed by Alison Perry, looked at how a group of divorcing parents coped financially before reaching a final divorce settlement. Their study found:

• The mothers in the study were much more likely than the fathers to experience a drop in income after separation. However, they were more likely, as primary carers of the children, to stay in the matrimonial home. Fathers were more likely to move several times in search of a secure home. 
• Spousal maintenance was rarely paid. Formal child maintenance was also relatively infrequent. Much more commonly, a non-resident parent provided some support for the child through a voluntary arrangement, even where the carer was receiving social security benefits. 
• Forms of support other than regular maintenance were common, both for mothers and children. These ranged from continuing to pay the mortgage, to paying for school fees, holidays, clothes or leisure activities. 
• Solicitors were usually retained only when what the parents saw as the 'legal side' of the separation had to be dealt with. Parents often negotiated settlements between themselves; only a minority obtained legally binding orders settling their finances.
• The parent staying in the matrimonial home was likely to compensate the other by giving up any share of the other's pension, savings or investments. For mothers, immediate housing needs took priority over longer-term financial security.
• Household contents were regarded as belonging to the parent who had paid for or brought them into the household, but the parent who left the home was often seen as having forfeited their claim, especially where the children remained behind.
• Nearly a quarter of parents felt that the settlement they had finally made had not been fair to either themselves or to their children.

Background
The impact of separation and divorce upon family finances and living standards has been the subject of attention from both academic researchers and policy-makers over the years. There is considerable evidence demonstrating the often substantial drop in the standard of living likely to be experienced by carers (usually mothers) and children when the family is broken up and the extent to which such families depend on social security benefits. The working of the legal process has also been studied, and data collected on how financial settlements are handled by lawyers and the courts. 

However, less is known about the shorter-term effects of marriage breakdown, and how families adjust to separation. When a marriage breaks down, there will be many immediate financial matters to deal with, which cannot wait for the divorce process to reach a conclusion. This study investigated the range of issues which parents have to deal with during this interim period and how they responded to them. It also collected information on the divorce settlements which parents finally reached, exploring their motivations and objectives in reaching them and their attitudes to the law and legal process.

Changes in income and expenditure
The mothers in the study were much more likely to experience a drop in the level of income available to them after separation than the fathers, reflecting their previous dependence upon their husbands for the bulk of the family's support. The income of the majority of men was unchanged or only temporarily affected by their separation, but nearly half the women had not recovered to their pre-separation level by the time of the interview.

In the short term, even where the father had left, he continued to provide the main source of the mother's income in nearly a third of the cases, yet this was rarely categorised by either party as 'maintenance'. Parents who left the home, especially men, had extra expenses to meet because they remained liable (practically as well as legally) to continue to pay for at least some of the costs of the family they left behind. Mothers were much more likely than fathers to make up their income from a variety of sources. 

Effects on housing
Over half of the parents in the sample had left the matrimonial home since the marriage broke down. Women, and those with care of the children, were more likely to stay in the home. Only a quarter of homes were put up for sale, perhaps reflecting the state of the housing market at the time of their separation. Men - who were less likely to have children living with them - were much more likely to move several times in search of a secure home. Just under half the women who had moved had done so only once, while this was true of only 9 per cent of the men who had moved. Nearly half of parents, and over half of mothers, reported difficulties in meeting housing costs.

Difficulties in coping with expenses
Three-quarters of the parents reported experiencing difficulty in making ends meet after separation. One-off expenses, such as holidays, birthdays and special occasions, were particularly problematic. Mothers were much more likely to face difficulties than fathers, due to their generally lower levels of income and their childcare responsibilities. One mother, reflecting on Christmas, said:

"I just try to put something away every month throughout the year to pay for it. But this year I only just managed ... I said to some people this year 'Do you mind if we just give cards?' and they were very understanding, but it wasn't very nice to have to say it."

Ways of coping
Parents used a wide range of measures to cope with their financial difficulties. Fathers, already usually in full-time work, might take advantage of overtime. Mothers, less likely to be working full-time before the separation, either took up such work or increased their part-time hours. The other side of the coin was to cut back on expenditure. Paring back spending could have a considerable impact upon the children's standard of living, especially affecting their ability to take part in school trips and leisure activities outside school. Parents learned to budget carefully, but many had to run down their savings, and resorted to borrowing, sometimes with detrimental results.

Support from the other spouse
The study confirmed that 'spousal maintenance' is now rare. Child maintenance, in the form of a court order or child support assessment, was also relatively infrequent. Much more commonly, a parent seemed to support the child through a voluntary arrangement, even where the carer was receiving social security benefits. 

Forms of support other than regular maintenance were common, both for mothers and children. These ranged from continuing to pay the mortgage, to meeting school fees or the costs of holidays, clothes and leisure activities. No association was found in this study between paying child maintenance and exercising contact with the child.

Support from others
For one-off cash, and other forms of essential financial assistance, parents were likely to turn to their family. Friends provided an important source of emotional and practical support, although were less likely to be used for direct financial aid. 

"My parents kept me going basically, with 'Red Cross' parcels. And now and again they used to send me a cheque to top up the freezer, pay the gas bills and things like that."

Advice and assistance
Whether parents obtained what they regarded as adequate professional advice and assistance in charting a course through the murky waters of separation and divorce appeared a matter of good luck and individual circumstances. 

"There's nobody to advise you, and that's where I think the whole thing goes 'phtt' because if it weren't for my brother, I think I'd have had a bum deal all the way down the line."

Parents' experiences of dealing with banks and lenders varied widely. They appeared to need appropriate advice early on, but found that Citizens' Advice Bureaux, though useful in offering general advice, were unable to provide specific and sufficiently detailed help. 

The legal process
Solicitors were usually not approached until the time came for what the parents saw as the 'legal side' of the separation to be dealt with. Parents seemed to use solicitors to handle the formal aspects of this, and to spell out the range of options open to them, but often negotiated the terms of the settlement between themselves. Only a minority of parents obtained legally binding orders settling their finances.

"Apart from making it official, it was all between ourselves. The solicitor complained he had nothing to do."

The final settlement
Although the courts have wide powers to allocate property between the spouses, regardless of which spouse is the legal owner, the couples themselves tended to think that, apart from the house, entitlement to assets on divorce followed ownership. This was particularly so in relation to the pension. Mothers were much more concerned to secure their immediate housing needs (and those of their children) than to worry about their old age, and they traded off any claim to a share of the pension in return for staying in the home or a larger share of the equity. Meeting the needs of the children, and the wish to avoid arguments, were the primary factors influencing the details of the settlement. 

"That's why I gave him the car, I gave him the house. It wasn't worth the emotional trauma. I just wanted it to stop."

Nearly a quarter of parents felt that the settlement had been unfair to them or to their children. They were fairly evenly divided as to whether a pre-nuptial agreement would be a good idea. Some felt that this could protect their existing children in any future divorce, but others were worried that it would be impossible to foresee how circumstances might change. Fathers were more likely to favour such agreements than mothers.

Implications for policy and practice
The researchers conclude that the deep financial difficulty into which families may be plunged when parents separate needs to be directly addressed through a review by both the private sector and the social security system of the ways in which they respond to parents' needs. There is also a need for reliable, accessible and appropriate advice and support to families facing marital breakdown, which provides detailed and individual assistance as and when they need it, and across the whole range of issues arising on marriage breakdown. The legal system, and the services provided by lawyers, cannot and should not be expected to meet this need entirely. However, the law can set out more clearly the objectives and the approach which should be taken when settling family finances which would aid couples in negotiating a settlement. The Government's suggested guidelines in their Consultation Paper, Supporting Families, appear to represent a useful way forward in this respect.

About the study
The study was carried out between 1998 and 1999. Information from a random sample of court records from six courts in South Wales and South West England was collected. In all cases decrees nisi of divorce had been obtained in the first half of 1997 and the family included at least one 'child of the family' under the age of 16. Basing the interviews on a detailed questionnaire, the researchers then interviewed 57 families from this sample, 31 fathers and 35 mothers in total. In nine cases, both parents were interviewed.

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