How much Maintenance must a husband pay to his wife?
LawGuide
In Singapore, the husband has a legal obligation and duty to maintain or contribute to the maintenance of wife or ex-wife (e.g. reasonable cost of accommodation, clothing, food and education).
The husband’s duty to maintain his ex-wife will generally end when she remarries or when he is deceased (whichever takes place earlier).
The Court will determine the amount of maintenance to be paid considering the following factors:
Financial needs of the wife.
Income, earning capacity, property and other financial resources of both the wife and husband.
Any physical or mental disability of the wife.
Age of each party and the duration of the marriage.
Contributions made by each of the parties to the marriage to the welfare of the family, including any contribution made by looking after the home or caring for the family.
Standard of living enjoyed by the wife before the husband neglected or refused to provide reasonable maintenance for the wife.
Any value / benefit which one party would stand to lose as a result of the Divorce (e.g. pension)
Conduct of the parties.
In determining the amount of maintenance to be paid by the husband, the Court generally aims to place the husband and wife in the financial position in which they would have been if the marriage had not broken down.
This is because the general aim of requiring a former husband to maintain his former wife is to even out any financial inequalities between the spouses and, if necessary, take into account any economic prejudice suffered by the former wife during the marriage (e.g. a wife suffered financial loss because she has sacrificed her career or lost out in her earning capacity in order to look after the family).
