A heterosexual couple have lost their legal battle to be allowed to enter into a civil partnership. Rebecca Steinfeld, 34, and Charles Keidan, 39, are both academics who live in Hammersmith, west London and are engaged and have been in a relationship for over five years. The couple also have a young son together.
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The Succession (Scotland) Bill has passed its final stage in the Scottish Government. This is the first major reform to succession law for over 50 years. Many people consider current succession laws to be outdated and in pressing need of reform.
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As December comes to an end we tend to look back over the year we have had. 2015 has been a very significant year for Scottish family law as the first same sex marriage ceremonies were held last Hogmanay, showing how much Scottish family life has changed over time. Before the New Year begins we can start to think about what might be the biggest family law trend of 2016.
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Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown that cohabiting families are the fastest growing family type in the UK.
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A recent study from America has found an apparent link between the success of a marriage and the husband’s health and personality.
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Single parent charity Gingerbread has responded to a recent report by think tank Policy Exchange on single parents and employment.
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Just under half of adults currently living as part of a family have experienced at least one previous committed relationship (involving marriage or cohabitation) prior to their current family setup. More than one in six (17%) have had two or more past committed relationships, with 5% having had three or more.
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A recent report from the think tank Marriage Foundation has claimed that around a quarter of a million of couples are claiming lone parent benefits, while continuing to reap the benefits of a two-parent household.
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The Marriage Foundation has disputed a claim made by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) that there is no evidence that married parents provide a better environment for children’s development than cohabiting couples.
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The Office for National Statistics has published a statistical bulletin giving information on families and households in the UK in 2012.
The Heritage Foundation in America has claimed that the collapse of marriage, along with a dramatic rise in births to single women, is the most important cause of childhood poverty but government policy doesn’t reflect that reality.
Recent research from America by the National Center for Health Statistics has found that there has been an increase in the number of children born outside marriage across American women of all age groups.
Match.com, the online dating site, has released findings from its second annual Singles in America study.
Fifteen per cent of Britons over the age of 40 and living with their partner choose to keep some or all of their savings hidden from their other halves, according to recent research.
The Government has previously expressed support for the idea of supporting marriage through the tax system. Among the possible rationales for such a policy is a belief that having married parents, as opposed to cohabiting parents, improves children’s cognitive or social development.
Britain’s levels of births outside marriage are at the highest point for at least 200 years, according to a major new study of the history of the family from the independent think-tank, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). Cohabitation levels have also soared from under 5% pre-1945 to 90% today.
