While youngsters turn their back on marriage, increasing numbers of more mature men are bucking the trend & getting hitched
Marriage rates for opposite-sex couples are now at their lowest level on record, having declined gradually since the 1970s. However, the latest Office for National Statistics figures show the number of weddings increased for men over 50 and women aged 35-39 years and 45 years and over.
The figures are from 2015 but were released this week. 239,020 opposite-sex couples wed in 2015, a 3.4% decline on 2014—although the ONS speculates that the 2014 figures were boosted by couples delaying marrying in 2013 to avoid the unlucky number 13.
Some 6,493 same-sex couples took advantage of the then recent legislation to wed (gay marriage became possible on 29 March 2014).
Family lawyers warned this week of the dangers of long-term cohabitation, without a legal safety net.
Jo Edwards, head of family at Forsters, said: ‘We are sitting on a ticking time bomb as people sleepwalk their way into cohabiting relationships, without realising that there is no such thing as common law marriage and that they may be severely disadvantaged at the end of the relationship.’
There is also a need to place pre-nuptial agreements on a formal footing, she said. ‘One of the reasons for the phenomenon of "silver splicers" is that around one in three marriages are second marriages as people are living longer, and in turn people feel more readily able to enter into marriage later in life knowing that nuptial agreements are being respected ever more by English courts. But ideally, as the Law Commission proposed in 2014, they should be given a statutory footing so that there is greater clarity in this area.’
Deborah Jeff, partner and head of family at Seddons, said: ‘The best protection is a properly prepared cohabitation agreement, setting out what is intended financially in the event that the relationship ends.
‘But the optimism at the beginning of a relationship means that couples aren’t even considering what happens in a worst case scenario, perhaps mistakenly assuming they are protected by the law in a “common law marriage”. From our recent nationwide polling, only 4% of couples living together had in place a cohabitation agreement, with 79% of cohabiting respondents stating they were not even aware of the existence of cohabitation agreements.
‘More work and education is needed to ensure couples bear in mind the adage “look before you leap” rather than being left financially disadvantaged if the relationship fails.’
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