• Germany edition
Society
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Divorce deals 'should factor in marriage length'

Published: 2 Dec 12 14:10 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20121202-46517.html

More importance should be placed on the duration of a marriage when calculating post-divorce maintenance payments, politicians said over the weekend, saying housewives or husbands are at financial risk if their marriage ends.

Women in particular who were not earning while married are vulnerable under the current system, politicians warned, ahead of a vote on new rules partly designed to protect full-time home-makers who get divorced.

“We want [to make sure] that married women who got married a long time ago don't fall into an abyss in case of a divorce,” Ute Granold, legal expert in the ruling Conservative union (CDU/CSU) parliamentary fraction told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Five years ago reforms to rules on maintenance payments made divorcées almost solely responsible for their own living costs, which has meant long-term home-makers or low earners can be left in very difficult circumstances if they split from their spouses.

Legislation due to be put before the Bundestag lower house of parliament in early December had not yet defined the time period after which a marriage is seen as a long one, said Granold, who added that “it's not about the letter of the law, but about [achieving] a fair balance of interests.”

Bavarian state Justice Minister Beate Merk told the paper she wanted the new law to include a provision for divorced mothers with one or more children under 15 to clarify that they would not be expected to work full-time.

“Only then can we protect single parents from becoming overwhelmed,” said the minister.

DAPD/The Local/jlb

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

15:11 December 2, 2012 by raandy
The process of divorce is never pleasant.

A women who stays home takes care of the home, cooks,cleans and does most of the child care to support her husbands work efforts really needs to have that factored in to any settlement.

I remember the head of the Border Patrol in my State told me how he had been raked over the coals ,and had to give his xwife of 30 years half his retirement.He said " all she ever did was stay home and do house work and play with the children" I just nodded and smiled to myself.
15:52 December 2, 2012 by catjones
Leave it to the germans to confuse precision with perfection. Maybe they can contact a university mathematics professor to come up with a formula for a fair equality.
18:41 December 2, 2012 by Zubair Khan
A difficult issue. 15 years might be considered a long marraige. Before deciding finally, experts are advised to examine few other social/religious models or teachigns.
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