The financial issues that many mothers face after enduring a divorce are being resolved markedly quicker than they were just one decade ago, it has been claimed.

 

Mothers who separated during the mid-1990s could expected their incomes to fall by an average of 30 per cent once their divorce lawyer had completed proceedings, but that figure now stands at just 18 per cent.

 

By comparison, newly-separated fathers had previously seen an average 36 per cent rise in their net income - but that has now fallen to 31 per cent.

 

Analysts say the closing gap reflects greater social mobility for newly-divorced mothers, who are becoming more adept at finding new work irrespective of their marital status.

 

Nonetheless, Dr Stephen Jenkins of Essex University's Institute for Social and Economic Research, which carried out the study, said: "There remain large gaps on average between the short-term income losses of separating husbands and of separating women."

 

Approximately 150,000 couples get divorced every year in the UK.