Many people who get divorced end up remarrying, or at least finding a new partner and moving in with them. In 40 percent of marriages, at least one spouse has already been married at some point. Spouses who receive alimony need to carefully consider remarriage or new relationships, as they will likely be wiping out their future spousal support payments. In Illinois, the legal obligation of the paying spouse ends when the receiving spouse gets married or begins living permanently with a new partner. A DuPage County family law attorney can help give you more information whether you are the paying or the receiving spouse.
What Types of Spousal Support Are There?
Alimony, which is also called spousal support or maintenance, is a financial payment made from a higher earning spouse to the lower-earning spouse during the divorce process or after the marriage has been dissolved. There are many types of alimony, described below:
- Lump Sum Alimony—One large payment, not to be repeated
- Rehabilitative Alimony—Financial support used for vocational training or education
- Reimbursement Alimony—Payment used to reimburse the lower-earning spouse for expenditures they made during the marriage
- Bridge the Gap Alimony—Spousal support that is awarded during the divorce process, used to provide the lower-earning spouse the means necessary to continue living the lifestyle they grew accustomed to during the marriage
- Permanent Alimony—Permanent maintenance payments, usually made monthly
- Temporary Alimony—Spousal support that has a predetermined end date. Many of the previously described types of alimony are temporary.
Temporary and permanent spousal support is affected by remarriage or cohabitation. Alimony that was already paid, be it a lump sum or monthly allotments, does not need to be paid back after remarrying, except for payments made after the receiving spouse remarried or entered a cohabitation relationship.
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