Maintenance

Indiana does not allow for alimony. Indiana does allow for maintenance. Maintenance is the payment of money to the former spouse for their support.

Temporary maintenance is only allowed from the provisional hearing to the Final Hearing. Here the purpose is to keep the other spouse afloat during the transition out of marriage and two incomes. The spouse seeking maintenance must not be able to support themselves. My experience is that courts are not likely to grant maintenance and when they do order it, the spouse paying maintenance is ordered to pay bills rather than pay cash to the other spouse.

Post-divorce maintenance is of three varieties and the statute defines them so that they are available only in specific cases. First, one spouse is disabled and incapable of supporting themselves. Second, one spouse has custody of a child who is so disabled that the spouse must give up work to take care of the child. The last type of maintenance is called rehabilitative maintenance and the statute sets out the criteria for rehabilitative maintenance:

(A) the educational level of each spouse at the time of marriage and at the time the action is commenced;
(B) whether an interruption in the education, training, or employment of a spouse who is seeking maintenance occurred during the marriage as a result of homemaking or child care responsibilities, or both;
(C) the earning capacity of each spouse, including educational background, training, employment skills, work experience, and length of presence in or absence from the job market; and
(D) the time and expense necessary to acquire sufficient education or training to enable the spouse who is seeking maintenance to find appropriate employment....

No maintenance is permanent. Rehabilitative maintenance lasts only three years. Where the court gives maintenance because of the spouse’s disability when the spouse can support themselves is the end of the maintenance. When a child’s disability is the reason for the maintenance order, the court orders the maintenance for what it considers to be an appropriate amount of time.