Cohabiting couples are calling for legal rights equal to those of marriage, prompting criticism from those who say it would ‘diminish the importance of marriage’.
A YouGov poll commissioned by Forsters law firm found that 60 per cent of the 2000 respondents believed cohabiting couples should have the same inheritance tax rights as married couples. It reported a 50 per cent rise in couples requesting a cohabiting agreement in the past year.
The number of cohabiting couples in the UK has reached 3.5 million. A Government consultation on the topic is expected to be launched in the Spring, following a Labour party manifesto commitment to strengthen the rights of women in cohabiting relationships.
A modern world
Claire Reilly from Sussex, who is cohabiting with her partner, told The Times: “we do live together, we own a house and we’ve got children. We’re basically married — we’ve just not got the piece of paper.”
She called for greater legal protection for cohabitees, arguing: “We’re in a modern world now and things are different.”
Forsters’ Jo Edwards claimed the data supported a change in the law in the name of “fairness and clarity”.
Undermining marriage
But Baroness Deech KC (Hon) dismissed the claim that marriage and cohabitation are equivalent relationships, commenting: “marriage is not just a piece of paper; it is a promise, a mutual obligation freely and publicly undertaken and understood as such”.
In letter published in The Times, one correspondent wrote: “’Shacking up’ isn’t the same as making a public declaration of an enduring and exclusive relationship whereby you acquire mutual rights and responsibilities, nor should it be. Family security has been undermined enough without further diminishment of the importance of marriage.”
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