When a married couple divorces in Illinois, the court may require the higher-earning spouse to pay spousal support to the other spouse. Spousal support is also called spousal maintenance or alimony. The support is typically intended to be temporary and rehabilitative in nature, but there are exceptions. The higher-earning spouse provides payments to the recipient spouse until he or she can get back on his or her feet financially. The issue of the payment of spousal support may also be agreed upon ahead of time through a prenuptial agreement. Whether you are the payor or recipient of spousal support, you may want to know how long these payments will last. The answer depends on a variety of factors.

Temporary Spousal Support vs. Permanent Spousal Support

If you and your spouse agreed to a spousal support arrangement in a Marital Settlement Agreement, the payments will end according to that agreement. When the court assigns spousal support, it is typically intended to last long enough for the recipient to gain the education, training, skills, and employment needed to become financially independent. Illinois law provides a formula for calculating the duration of a spousal support order that depends upon the length of the marriage. Longer marriages generally lead to proportionately longer orders for spousal support.

In some cases, the court will award permanent spousal support to a spouse. This typically happens when the spouses were married for longer than 20 years and the lesser earning spouse sacrificed education and employment to be a homemaker or care for children.

Ending a marriage is difficult no matter who you are, but those getting divorced after not working outside of the home in many years face added challenges. If you are considering divorce and are a homemaker or stay-at-home mother or father, you probably have many questions. Will I be awarded spousal support even if I initiate the divorce? How can I find a job to support myself without work experience? Will I receive additional child support because I do not have a job?

The answer to many of these questions will depend on your unique circumstances. If you are a stay-at-home parent or have otherwise not worked outside of the home and plan to divorce, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

You May Qualify for Spousal Maintenance

When deciding whether or not to award spousal maintenance, Illinois courts consider many factors. These include, but are not limited to:

Since 2016, the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) has included a specific formula for divorce courts to use when calculating how much one spouse must pay to the other in the form of maintenance, also known as spousal support or alimony. The formula is based on each spouse’s annual income and is intended to provide additional support for spouses who earn substantially less than their partners earn. When the formula was created in 2016, it was meant to be applied in situations where the spouses earned less than $250,000 per year combined. Thanks to an update to the law that was passed last year, the formula must now be used in many more situations.

Determining the Need for Maintenance

Maintenance is not automatic in an Illinois divorce. The judge presiding over a particular case must determine if a bona fide need for spousal support exists. In making that determination, the court will consider a number of factors, including each spouse’s age, health, income, and employability, as well as the arrangements that have been made for the couple’s children, if any. The court must also take into account the length of the marriage, the standard of living established, and sacrifices or contributions made by either spouse to the other’s career.

Maintenance in Illinois usually takes the form of either a lump sum payment or periodic payments over a period of time. Under Illinois law maintenance terminates upon remarriage and/or cohabitation of the spouse receiving maintenance with an adult individual on a continuous conjugal basis.

Under Illinois law, once a marriage ceremony has been performed, spousal support terminates. Compared to a remarriage situation, support issues regarding cohabitation are more vague and complex. If one spouse can show that the other is living with someone else “on a resident, continuing conjugal basis,” then he or she can petition to have maintenance payments terminated. However, cohabitation is not as defined as remarriage.

Marriages end for a variety of reasons. One such reason is infidelity. According to a national study, 55 percent of survey participants stated that they divorced their spouse due to infidelity. Despite the cause, divorce is generally an emotional process for all parties involved. Furthermore, many couples facing divorce must determine whether either spouse will receive spousal support or maintenance after a marriage ends. In this situation, one question often arises: does the infidelity of a spouse have an impact on maintenance?

What is Maintenance?

Maintenance, formerly referred to as alimony, is an amount of money, typically paid monthly, that a judge may award to one party in a divorce action. In general, maintenance aims to put both spouses on relatively equal economic footing after a divorce. The spouse who made less or no money while married will typically petition to receive maintenance. Additionally, a spouse may petition for maintenance so that he or she can continue paying living expenses after obtaining a divorce.