Marital life is one of the most frequently seen grounds in complaints from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity (MTESS).
Existence of a marital life situation
The nuances are fine sometimes for social assistance: spouse, roommate, roomer, partner, boyfriend, blonde, ex-spouse, friend, etc.
According to case law, the existence of a marital life situation is determined by the analysis of the following three cumulative criteria:
- cohabitation
- mutual aid
- the renowned commune
Thus, in addition to cohabitation, the notion of marital life implies mutual aid, which is defined by reciprocity in the help and assistance that exists between spouses or common-law partners.
In addition, the municipality with a reputation may allow the Court to assess the nature of the relationship between two persons and thus to validate or not the marital life.
Cohabiting without an emotional bond?
The case law has clearly established that, in order to qualify a marital life situation, a relationship between two persons of full age must meet the three criteria listed above.
Moreover, since the Brunette decision, a fourth criterion has been added to take into account a person’s disability. In that case, there was no question of an emotional bond or a desire to cohabit in the nature of a married life, but rather, and only, of the need to compensate for the respective handicaps. As a result, the Tribunal found that there was no marital life, no misrepresentation or fraud.
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Joint and several liability for a debt to social assistance
Often, a social assistance claim for married life is solidary, whether both parties are both recipients of social assistance or not. Being jointly and severally liable for a welfare debt means that both are responsible for the entire debt.
The law provides that benefits paid to welfare recipients are calculated on the basis of the family’s income. Therefore, if there is marital life within the meaning of the law and case law and the alleged spouse had work income, there will be a claim for marital life. The latter will have to jointly and severally assume the debt with the claimant, even if he has never received social assistance benefits.
Challenging a marital life decision
Social assistance often claims very large sums of money for marital life and misrepresentation. Not all welfare claims are well-founded.
Our firm is highly experienced in marital life cases, having handled hundreds in recent years, many of which exceeded hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Contact our firm so that Me Lambert can analyze all the evidence held by the Ministère in your marital life file, which is often very large.
*Please note that we do not accept legal aid mandates in marital life cases, due to the complexity of these cases.
Read also…
- Social Assistance Lawyer
- Social Assistance Survey
- The Investigation for Married Life and the Protection of Privacy
- Incapacity to work and the right to have a spouse