Alimony: Either the man or woman can be ordered to pay-Legal Practitioner
Even though typically, it is the men who are ordered to make payments, there are also cases don’t forget that women have come of age since Beijing
A lawyer and family life counselor, Kweku Yamoah Paintsil has indicated that either of a couple, thus man or woman, can be ordered to pay alimony during the course of divorce proceedings.
According to him, it was only the men who were ordered to make such payment under customary law however per the matrimonial causes act, either party may be ordered to pay alimony.
“Whenever a party goes to court, there are two main reliefs that they may be asking for. Either a dissolution of marriage or a decree of nullity. But there are related issues. We normally call them ancillary reliefs,” he said.
“Alimony is what I may call a court-ordered payment to either of the parties to pay money to the other party. Our law is very clear on that. At customary law, it was always the man but under the matrimonial causes act, either of the parties can be ordered to pay money to the other party,” he added.
Speaking on Home Affairs on JoyFM, Mr. Paintsil further noted that alimony is based on the principle that anytime couples go through the divorce procedure, one out of their two households will suffer.
“We have what we call temporary alimony and permanent alimony. Typically we say alimony pendante lite. It is founded on the principle that anytime the parties go through the procedure or the proceedings, they essentially have two households and typically one household will suffer because what will then happen is that the standard of living of the other party is going to change thus the other party who will be short-changed, will require that the court makes an order for him or her to live up to that standard before the marriage, during the course of the divorce proceeding,” he indicated.
Also, the legal practitioner intimated that even though it is the men who are typically ordered to make payments, there are also cases where women have been ordered to also pay the men.
Moreover, he said that the above is based on the fact that women have now come of age and most women are making more than men thus in such situations, it is the men who will rather need financial support in the course of the divorce proceedings.
“Even though typically, it is the men who are ordered to make payments, there are also cases don’t forget that women have come of age since Beijing. I mean we started this conversation because a 45-year-old friend of yours is not married but has so much and so forth. If she had married for instance and her husband was of a lower income, and they had to go through divorce proceedings, chances are that the man may require support during that period,” he noted.
