How to prepare a section 25 witness statement in divorce financial remedy cases

This article was updated on 5 July 2024.

Within divorce proceedings/ dissolution proceedings, either party can apply to the court for a financial remedy order. A financial remedy order deals with the split of the parties’ finances. If the application for financial remedy order is not settled early on, the court may require the both parties to prepare a s25 statement. This article looks at how and when the statement may be prepared and what a client should put in the statement.

This article was originally published on 26 May 2021 and has been amended to reflect legal changes on 31 January 2022.

When may a s25 statement be prepared?

Once divorce proceedings/ dissolution of civil partnership proceedings have started either party can make an application to the court for a financial remedy order.

This process is commenced with the applicant (the person making the application) submitting a Form A to the court. The court will then issue the application and give a date for a first court hearing. The court will send the parties a notice setting out the details of the first hearing and what the parties must do before this. These directions will include that each party completes a Form E. A Form E is a lengthy document that sets out each parties’ full details and financial information.

If the matter does not settle early on then the court may require each party to prepare a s25 statement, this is especially the case in the lead up to a final hearing.

Why is it called a s25 statement?

It is called a s25 statement because the factors that the court should take into account when determining a financial remedy application are set out in s25 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.

The purpose of a s25 statement therefore is to set out which of these factors is relevant to a client’s case.

What are the s25 factors?

A client should look at the s25 factors before preparing a statement and details can be found in:

• The Act and
• On paragraph 58 of the adviser page.

What these factors are and how they work can be summarised as follows:

• first the court must have regard for the welfare of any child of the family
• then the s25 checklist in para 25 (2) a-h is applied but
• the court must also take other circumstances of the case, even if these do not fall within the factors listed
• The court will want to try and get a clean break between the parties ( i.e to sever the financial links between the parties as much as possible, save with regard to child maintenance).

How to lay out the statement.

A client should check the court order that directed them to prepare the statement, to see if any specific instructions were given to them as to what to put in the statement.

Below is a standard statement guide and at the bottom there is a template.

The headings

On the first page the client should put:

• the name of the court
• the case number
• the name of the applicant ( who is applying for the financial remedy order)
• the name of the respondent (who is the other party)
• the title of whose s25 statement it is

General points about the layout

A client should:

• type the statement, if possible
• use font size 12
• number each page
• number each paragraph
• type on one side of the paper only
• keep sentences short
• keep paragraphs short
• stick to the point

The first paragraph

To begin a statement a client should set out:

• their name and address
• whether they are the applicant or the respondent
• how they have been directed to make this statement

Main body of the statement

Background

A client can give some background to the matter to set out:

• who the applicant and the respondent are
• where they live and with whom
• what they do for a job
• If they are not working what they did for a job, and why they left i.e maybe to look after children
• when they married
• when they split up
• the date of the divorce petition
• the date of the Form A
• the date of the decree nisi and decree absolute, if made
• the names of the children of the family, their dates of birth and where they live

The statement should be based on a client’s present position not that at the time of their From E

The information in the statement should be correct as at the time it is prepared. As the Form E will have been completed many months before it is likely that a lot of the figures on the form will have changed. A client should put updated figures in the statement.

If there have been any major changes in a client’s circumstances, since a Form E was prepared then it is good idea to explain this briefly.

For example “ in my form E I stated that I am working full time. This is not now the case as last month my hours were reduced to 20 hours because my employer is having to make cuts”.

Use the following headings for the s25 factors

After the paragraph headed “ background” a client should set out each section 25 factor as subheadings and then say how each one may be relevant to them.

For ease this article has broken down the factors into small sections as follows:

Income

A client should set out briefly what their income is. A client should first work out:

• what their income is on a yearly basis and
• then calculate what this equates to on a monthly basis

The income should include:

• their net pay (what do they actually receive from work)
• any benefits
• any child maintenance
• any other income

Earning capacity

If a client is not working, or working part time, the other party may have asked some questions during the proceedings as to what their earning capacity will be in the future, if this is the case a client can summarise what the response to those questions found. For example, “ the information I have provided shows that the average pay for a sales assistant (a job I could do is ) x per month”.

Property

A client should summarise:

• what, if any interest they have in any property (i.e. do they own a property in their sole name or with someone else)
• whose name the property is in
• how much it is worth (this should have been agreed or determined by the court by this time)
• what the updated redemption figure is on the mortgage (in other words, if the property is sold how much would need to be repaid to the mortgage lender)
• what the mortgage repayments are
• who pays the mortgage
• who lives in the property and how many bedrooms it has.

Financial resources

A client should briefly summarise what other financial resources they have and give up to date figures for assets such as:

• savings
• bank account
• any assets over £500
• up to date CE (cash equivalent) figure for any pension.

Financial obligations

A client should summarise if they have any debts, loans and if so what the amount outstanding is at and what the repayments are.

Financial needs

This is the most important section as a client is required to set out what they need.

At the most basic this will be a client’s need in terms of income and housing.

Income needs

The client will have set out in paragraphs 3.1.1 and 3.1.2. of the Form E what their income needs are for themselves and any children of the family who live with them. A client should check the figures in these paragraphs of their Form E and if there is any change these should be calculated.

A client needs to ensure that they put down all the outgoings for themselves and any children. They should work out what their yearly expenses are (things such as car tax and insurance) and then convert to monthly figures.

To make the accessing information easier for the judge, it is a good idea to list these outgoings, even if they are the same as in the Form E.

If the client expects any major changes in their outgoings in the foreseeable future then it may be easier to do one column for needs now and another for future needs

For example:

Property needs

Within the proceedings, the parties may have been asked to provide details of properties they consider may be suitable for themselves and any children of the family to live in, both to rent or to purchase. The purpose of this is so that the judge has some idea as to how much money each party would need, if the family home had to be sold.

A client should state in the statement how much such a property would cost (if to buy) based on these particulars, or how much money they would need to to rent each month and for a deposit.

A client may have also been asked to get details of what their mortgage capacity is (i.e. how much money they could get for a mortgage to buy a property) and what the repayments would be. This information should be referred to in the statement and any supporting documents exhibited.

These bits of information will help the judge decide how much money a client and the other party will need:

• to live off and
• for their housing costs

Standard of living enjoyed before the breakdown

A client should indicate what standard of living they enjoyed during the marriage. In this section a client can mention whether money was tight, or if they had a comfortable lifestyle with frequent holidays and meals out.

However, to what extent this factor is considered will depend on the available assets in the marriage and income of the parties.

Usually, the first concern of the court is to ensure that the needs of the children and then the parties are met before they look at how other factors (such as standard of living) may be taken into account.

Age of each party and the duration of the marriage

A client should give:

• their age
• how old they are
• how long they have been married
• state if they lived together prior to the marriage and if so for how long.

Physical or mental disability

A client should give details of:

• any physical or mental disability that they have
• what the condition is
• the effect it has on them
• any treatment they are receiving
• what the long term prognosis is
• if the health condition is likely to affect their ability to work, to detail how

If there are any medical reports, which confirm, these points then these can be attached as exhibits. Each exhibit should have a front sheet to it and be marked with the initials of the client and the number exhibit that it is for, example ‘AJ1’. In the statement they should be referred to by the exhibit number, for example:

“ I have been diagnosed with arthritis and I now attach at exhibit ‘AJ1’ a report from my consultant dated”.

There is an exhibit sheet template at the end of this article.

A client should also give details of any physical or mental disability any of the children of the family have and state:

• what the condition is
• the effect it has on the child
• the treatment they are receiving
• what the long term prognosis is

A client should detail how this condition may impact the care the child needs to be given .For example, the client may not be able to work full time as they need to be able to take the child to weekly medical appointments.

If the child’s health condition affects where the child lives then this should be explained. For example, if the family home has been specially adapted for the health needs of a disabled child then this should be mentioned.

Contributions

A client may want to mention contributions that they have made during the marriage to the welfare of the family. These contributions do not need to be financial; it could be for example a client gave up a successful career to look after the children of the family, the family home and support the other party, who built up the family business. Other contributions could be an inheritance or substantial compensation for an accident claim that was received.

Conduct

Whilst this is listed as a factor, conduct is very rarely taken into account. The sort of conduct which may be taken into account is if one party acted in a way that it would be unfair not to take it into account. For example, if one party assaulted the other partly so badly that they were no longer able to work full time, or the other party gambled away significant marital assets.

Loss of any benefits on dissolution

This factor generally refers to one party losing a widow’s / widower’s pension on the divorce.

Other factors

A client can also mention any other factors they think the court should take into account.

What order is sought and why

A client should clearly say what order they would like the court to make and why.

For example:

“I would like the court to order that the family home is sold and that I receive 60% of the net sale proceeds. I would like this as I have shown in this statement that is how much money I will need to buy a house outright for myself and the two children. I am not able to work because of my disability and cannot therefore get a mortgage”.

How to end the statement

A client should put a statement of the truth at the bottom to read and then sign and date it.

General observations regarding the court’s approach on a financial remedy application

Further details as to exactly how a court decides an application for a financial remedy order is beyond the scope for this article however, once the court has looked at the factors it must try to:

• achieve equality in a financial order between the parties unless,
• there is some reason to depart from this
• the needs of the child/ children of the family or, a need of one of the parties could be a reason to make this departure

Template for a standard statement

The information in this article is correct as of the date of publication. Unfortunately, we are unable to respond to comments left on the medium site — please contact expertadvicesupport@citizensadvice.org.uk if you wish to give feedback on an article.