As times change, every country must move on with outdated laws, else they become redundant and add very little value to the system of justice. There are plenty of changes afoot for Dutch law in the New Year. Amongst others, the government of Netherlands is marching ahead in the right direction towards Gender Equality, when it comes to amending its Alimony/Maintenance laws.

What Does The Current Law State?

After the dissolution of marriage, a spouse can ask for alimony. Usually, a spouse will ask for alimony if the other spouse was the primary provider in the marriage. In most cases, alimony will be awarded if the petitioner spouse can prove that they can’t support themselves after the divorce. Dutch law regarding spousal maintenance is applicable if the spouse who wants to receive alimony is living in the Netherlands.

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New Law With Effect From Jan 01, 2020

As of January 1, 2020, there will be a new law which will determine the new maximum period a person has to pay alimony for after a divorce. The new law will be applicable to all new divorce procedures, initiated on or after January 1, 2020. At the moment, the maximum period is 12 years after registration of the divorce decree. The new law states that, in principle, the maximum period will now be 5 years or will equal 50% of the duration of the marriage.

For example, if you were married for 6 years, the maximum spousal maintenance period will be 3 years only after divorce registration.

Certain Exceptions

There are some exceptions, however. First of all, when minor children are involved in the divorce litigation, the spouse will have to pay alimony until their youngest child turns 12 years old. Another exception is marriages of 15 years or longer where the spouse seeking spousal maintenance will receive a state pension (“AOW-age”) within 10 years after the divorce.

The following exemption will only be valid until January 1, 2027; the maximum term for ex-spouses receiving spousal maintenance who are 50 years or older and were married for at least 15 years, will be 10 years.

The right to receive alimony will end when the receiving spouse remarries or starts living with a new partner. This is also the case currently and will not change.

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Our Take:

Capping the tenure of spouse receiving maintenance/alimony is a big welcome step

This will ensure the spouse who is desiring maintenance money (most often the women), will have to become self dependent after a period of time, instead of becoming a life long liability on their partners

If we look at the current scenario in India, there is absolutely no timeframe for a divorce petition to be completed, and thus there is no limit to receiving maintenance and subsequently enhancement of maintenance by women, who choose to sit idle and cry victim for the rest of their lives

Such easy tax free money does no good, because ultimately the women themselves are left with no identity and keep standing in courts asking for more and more allowance as their birthright

On the other hand, a husband is virtually trapped if the marriage fails, because as per Indian laws, despite no fault of his, he still has to monetarily support his estranged wife; as per the quantum decided by judges

Why would any woman want to end the legal bond with the man if she is awarded right to maintenance forever?

Most frivolous cases are dragged on in our courts for one-two-three and even more decades, just because there is no deadline to stop this eternal allowance

Let’s assume a man and woman got married at the age of 28-30 and divorced within 2 years

Both parties have equal opportunity to commence their careers and life with dignity once again

However, in most cases, fully abled-bodied women choose not to take up job and demand that the man pays her monthly money forever, because she happened to be his wife for a brief period

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