Divorces to soar as lockdowns push couples to breaking point

Divorce rates will rocket this year as further lockdowns and financial pressures push already strained relationships to the brink, lawyers have said.

It follows an unexpected drop in the number of spouses looking to split in 2020. Around 52,000 people filed for divorce between the end of March and September last year, according to the Ministry of Justice. It is a 12pc drop compared with the same period in 2019, when almost 60,000 filed divorce proceedings.

Many had anticipated a spike in break- ups in 2020, as families faced severe economic uncertainty and were locked down at home. But experts have said the threat of a jobs crisis and forecast house price crash made people put their plans on hold.

Graham Coy, of law firm Wilsons, said it could now mean a wave of storedup cases emerging later this year.

“People shy away from making huge life decisions with big financial implications in times of uncertainty and the figures bear that out – we also saw this during the financial crisis,” he said.

“People are clinging on to one another and trying to see it through to the other side. They are facing huge

financial pressures and more time together under one roof, which adds to the strain. We also know domestic violence is on the up. As the vaccine rolls out and the picture becomes clearer, divorces will start to surge.”

Almost 19,000 people applied to the Family Court for protections against domestic violence between April and

September last year – up by a quarter compared with the same period in 2019.

Some couples will be waiting for new “no-fault divorce” laws to come in to force this year, which will make the process smoother and less acrimonious, Mr Coy added.

Mark Freedman of Osbornes Law, another firm, put last year’s drop in divorce rates down to more people untying the knot via private courts, after the public courts had to close temporarily because of coronavirus.

“When lockdown began in March last year, the temporary closure of the courts created massive backlogs in a system that was already at full capacity. Clients going through the courts to settle disputes over how their finances should be divided were looking at delays of up to a year for a hearing,” he said.

The Ministry of Justice said there was a significant drop in most activity across the Family Court because of Covid-19 and has recorded an uptick in the use of private courts.

It said waiting times for divorces had dropped compared with last year as its caseload fell, while faster online applications and temporary “Nightingale” courts eased some of the pressure on the system.

A lull in filings due to the pandemic could lead to a surge of divorces this year