Today’s Woman’s Hour on Radio 4 (14th July) featured a discussion with single parent, Jenny, about how her life has been impacted because she separated from her partner having never married. There is a dangerous lack of legal protections for cohabiting couples and this is particularly keenly felt by cohabitees who find themselves as single parents when a relationship ends or when a partner dies without a will.

There is a common misconception that living together with a romantic partner for a period of time results in the same legal rights as a couple who are married or in a civil partnership. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a “common law marriage” in England and Wales and this can leave one partner, often the parent who has taken on more caring responsibilities, facing significant financial insecurity if the relationship breaks down and the couple separates.

Jenny’s story

Jenny was in relationship with the father of her children for 11 years and they lived together, but were never married, for nine of those years.

‘Our children were planned and initially I was the main wage earner because he was an apprentice but once he progressed at work, I reduced my hours because he was the higher earner.

When we separated, the children were 4 and 7 and he became the cliché  absent father. In the first six months he barely saw the children, despite my best efforts, and then he settled into the typical “every other weekend” contact. This meant he could focus completely on building his career, able to work whatever hours he wanted, including evening study, whereas I was restricted by school runs and a lack of childcare which meant I could only work certain hours. He paid the legal minimum of child maintenance but never declared pay rises meaning for many years he was underpaying.

The lack of legal protection for cohabiting couples leaves women very vulnerable. Mothers are still the default parent, their careers get paused while they’re raising children and there is no expectation or legislation to fairly share parenting responsibilities, like 50-50 custody, or mandatory financial support.

I’d like to see child maintenance automatically deducted from absent parents’ salaries, loopholes regarding self-employment need to be closed, employment law/rights need to change to reflect shared parenting responsibilities, so that fathers are expected to work flexibly as well as mothers.

I’d like to see changes in the law so that non-married couples are acknowledged and given rights the same as married couples. Despite being able to prove almost a decade of cohabitation and shared finances, I have no claim to the company pension that he has because he has been able to build his career whilst I cared for our children.

My income, state pension and work pension have suffered as a result of me only being able to work limited hours and not progress my career. If we had stayed together, I would be financially secure but, because we separated and weren’t married, I won’t be.’

A Fairer End to Relationships consultation

As it stands, the law is clearly stacked against cohabiting couples. The government is currently consulting on whether there should be better legal protection for those who choose to live together but not marry or enter a civil partnership. The consultation, A Fairer End to Relationships, is a chance for people with lived experience, as well as organisations and members of the public, to share their views on what needs to change.

If you have been affected by this issue or would like to help shape future legal protections for cohabiting families, you can respond to the consultation on the Department for Justice website. You do not have to answer every question in the consultation. You can choose to answer as many or as few as you like.

The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 14 August 2026.