Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Second Report - The rights of cohabiting partners
Women and Equalities Committee
HC 92
Published 4 August 2022
Recommendations
3
Rejected
The lack of comprehensive legal protections for cohabitants upon relationship breakdown means that women, especially...
Recommendation
The lack of comprehensive legal protections for cohabitants upon relationship breakdown means that women, especially women from ethnic minority backgrounds and those who have had a religious-only marriage, can suffer relationship-generated disadvantage. The Law Commission’s proposals for weddings law reform, …
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Government Response Summary
The government rejects the recommendation to undertake a targeted information campaign aimed at women in religious communities where religious-only marriages are commonplace, highlighting the risks of not having a ceremony which meets legal formalities because existing work underway on the law of marriage and divorce must conclude before considering any change to the law in respect of the rights of cohabitants on relationship breakdown.
Government Equalities Office
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6
Rejected
People need certainty following the loss of a partner.
Recommendation
People need certainty following the loss of a partner. We support the Law Commission’s 2011 recommendations concerning intestacy and family provision claims for cohabitants. We are concerned that many cohabitants rely on trustee’ discretion to access their deceased partner’s pension, …
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Government Response Summary
HM Treasury rejects the recommendation to implement the Law Commission’s 2011 recommendations concerning intestacy and family provision claims for cohabiting partners; publish clear guidelines on how pension schemes should treat surviving cohabiting partners; and review the inheritance tax regime so it is the same for cohabiting partners as it currently is for married couples and civil partners because the government has no plans at present to extend the longstanding treatment of spouses and civil partners to cohabiting partners as the inheritance tax treatment of married couples and civil partners reflects their unique legal relationship.
Government Equalities Office
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Conclusions (1)
4
Conclusion
Rejected
Para 63
The law should fully recognise the social reality of modern families and protect people regardless of whether they are married, in a civil partnership, or in long- term cohabiting relationships. However, law reform should recognise that marriage continues to hold an important social and religious status in England and Wales. …
Government Response Summary
The Government rejects the recommendation, stating that reform of inheritance and family provision rights for cohabitees needs to be considered as part of the wider approach to reform of the law on cohabitation rights and intends to take a cautious approach, preferring to let individuals set their affairs in order via a will.