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Divorce costs double in just three years
18 December, 2006
The past year has seen a number of bitterly fought and well-documented divorce battles between high profile celeb couples, however it’s not just the elite that are seeing their divorce bills hit the roof.
According to recent research, failed marriages are now costing the nation as much as £4.3 billion, with almost two thirds of this, a staggering £2.5 billion, being drawn from personal savings in order to cover the cost of the split.
With the average total cost of ending a marriage now reaching £28,000 – a figure which has doubled over the past three years despite the corresponding decrease in divorce rates – couples now prefer to foot the bill by dipping into their savings for an average sum of £8,000.
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Pre-nuptial agreements are seen as a possible solution to this financial burden, with Paul Westcott of divorce law firm Last Cawthra Feather believing that in the future they could definitely become the norm for happy couples, seamlessly blending with other pre-wedding plans like booking the venue and sending out invites.
He comments that “Changes in divorce law this year as well as high-profile cases have made couples more aware that if they do divorce, the process can be made easier by considering and recording what each partner brought to the marriage at the outset.”
The UK is indeed supporting this predicted move towards pre-nuptial agreements, and the total number of couples embracing them has seen a massive four-fold increase over the past three years.
Encouragingly, in the face of the upset surrounding divorce proceedings, just under half of all divorcees say that despite the soaring cost of divorce, they would definitely take the plunge and marry again should the situation present itself at some point in the future.
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