Cash fears lead to fall in divorce rates

From Prince Charles to Bill Clinton, there have always been husbands and fathers who were tempted to stray. Now, however, men are turning away from affairs because they fear the financial repercussions if their marriages break down, according to the author of a controversial new study.

The introduction of a formal child support system in the early Nineties has helped keep families together and led to a 15 per cent fall in divorce among couples with dependent children, claims the study, which will be published in The Economic Journal next month. It argues that the fear of large maintenance bills is an incentive to men to stay in their relationship.

'High child support makes mums more likely to exit a bad partnership,' said Ian Walker co-author and professor of economics at Warwick University. 'But it also makes dads think twice before leaving.' Walker's study followed 5,000 families over 12 years and concluded that future payouts were a key factor in a father's decision not to leave.

Helen Barrett, from the National Family and Parenting Institute, said that tolerating difficult relationships for financial reasons had been an issue for women for years. 'In the past a lot of women could not afford to leave,' she said. 'I do not believe the divorce rate went up in the Seventies because marriages got worse. It was because women were more able to manage on their own.' As such, the fear of a slump in income could affect men too.

But others argued that divorce came down to emotions rather than money. 'I cannot think of a case I have dealt with where people chose not to get a divorce because of child support,' said David Burrows, a solicitor advocate from Bristol specialising in family law. 'In emotional terms, if you are fed up with someone, you want to get out. You worry about the kids, but I think money is at the bottom of the list.'

However, there is some evidence that men are tempted to stay in relationships when they think it will cost them too much to leave. Adrienne Burgess, a research and policy officer at Fathers Direct, said: 'There are "lock-ins" that make it harder to leave a marriage. In the past, there was social disapproval and the fact that women could not survive alone. Child support could be a lock-in.' But Burgess said it was dangerous to conclude that from statistics on divorce, because it did not tell us what was happening when couples had children without getting married.

Walker argued that it was the expectation of having to pay out lots of money, rather than the reality, that affected men. Media coverage of high-profile cases made them even more worried. In July 2004, the former wife of Arsenal and England footballer Ray Parlour won a claim for a third of his future income.

The reality for most people is quite different. The research found that, when fathers did leave, they often failed to pay full child support. And they tended to recover more quickly than their spouses. 'We found that dads tend to get new partners much quicker than mums and their income recovers faster,' said Walker.

The biggest losers were the children, he added, who tended to do worse in school if their parents split up. But the study said it was the loss of a father's wallet that had the most profound effect. 'We think the departure of the money is enough to explain all the decrease in educational achievement,' Walker said.