Illinois Divorce Law...

Illinois Law - What Factors Affect the Alimony Amount?

Here are the factors the court considers in granting spousal maintenance:

• The income and property of each party, including marital property apportioned and non-marital property assigned to the party seeking maintenance;
• The needs of each party;
• The present and future earning capacity of each party;
• Any impairment of the present and future earning capacity of the party seeking maintenance due to that party devoting time to domestic duties or having foregone or delayed education, training, employment, or career opportunities due to the marriage;
• The time necessary to enable the party seeking maintenance to acquire appropriate education, training, and employment, and whether that party is able to support himself or herself through appropriate employment or is the custodian of a child making it appropriate that the custodian not seek employment;
• The standard of living established during the marriage;
• The duration of the marriage;
• The age and the physical and emotional condition of both parties;
• The tax consequences of the property division upon the respective economic circumstances of the parties;
• Contributions and services by the party seeking maintenance to the education, training, career or career potential, or license of the other spouse;
• Any valid agreement of the parties;
• Any other factor that the court expressly finds to be just and equitable.

If the recipient can work, the court is likely to order "rehabilitative" (that is, temporary) maintenance. This is maintenance designed to tide the recipient over just until the recipient can start earning sufficient income himself or herself. The social goal is to sever the financial link between the spouses, which the law hopes will help promote the process of putting the marriage behind one and moving on.

If the payer is unemployed, the court may order the payer to look for work, to report on his or her efforts to the court, to report to the Department of Employment Security for job search services, or to make an application with the local Jobs Training Partnership Act provider for participation in job search training or work programs.

Sections 5/504 (c), 5/505.1.

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