What rights does the government provide to cohabiting couples?

The MoJ consultation also offers stronger financial rights for cohabiting couples than separated ones.

The rights aren’t as extensive as married couples and they don’t share resources, Edwards said. Instead, a partner can give a lump sum, asset transfer or pension share – but only if it’s necessary to meet basic needs, she says.

Edwards believes the proposed changes will be “transformational” for people with domestic violence or coercive and controlling behaviours, who would otherwise be unable to leave their relationships.

“We’re very pleased to see this consultation,” said Sam Smithers, chief executive of the Surviving the Economy attack, which has been campaigning to reform cohabitation laws.

Under the current system, people in cohabiting relationships who experience economic abuse “have to walk away from their homes, their savings, their financial security to escape the violence,” she said. Legal avenues to access their property after separation are “expensive and difficult to pursue” and are often unsuccessful in making their claims, she said.

Couples can jointly opt out of the proposed new rights as long as they meet certain safeguards, including getting independent legal advice and disclosing their financial situation to their partner.

Edwards said she thinks an opt-out system is the right way forward. “Too many people these days find out too late that they have no rights at the end of a relationship,” she says.

Some critics of the proposals say they choose not to marry because they want to keep their finances completely separate. One person wrote: “It was a conscious decision.” Mothers network, External. “The opt-out plan just changes the default and makes us go through the hoops to protect it.”

There are other issues that are not covered by the current resolutions and that the government needs to address. Selina Flavius, a member of the Widowed and Young charity, said that after her fiance died, she wanted her legal rights and bereavement payments at the funeral.