ABSTRACT
Responsibility is a multifaceted concept in the family context and beyond. However, it has not received direct judicial attention in England and Wales in relation to the financial and property implications of the breakdown of adult relationships. English law and policy are ambivalent about individuals responsibility for their economic well-being, particularly in terms of allowing people to take responsibility for their fate via financial and property arrangements negotiated with intimate partners. In the absence of any family law financial remedies to redress any economic imbalance arising at the end of the relationship, the unlucky partner is left to shoulder her losses alone. Low-income, often lone-parent, families who cannot absorb these costs and so seek state assistance is chastised for becoming a burden on society. In the United Kingdom (UK), the state attempts to limit its responsibility to meet the needs of the economically vulnerable by imposing legal responsibility on family members, at least within intact families.
