Alimony received and paid: What is the impact on the risk of poverty after separation?

Household dissolution may be harmful for separated parents and their children. Alimony has an impact on the available resources of both the parent who receives payments and the parent who pays them, and therefore influences their respective poverty risk as well as those of their children. This policy brief uses the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data to quantify these effects and to examine how alimony receipt and payment shape poverty risks following separation. From a policy perspective, this
issue warrants particular attention. A better understanding of how family dissolution interacts with private transfers, such as alimony, is essential in order to assess whether existing arrangements adequately protect families after dissolution or if additional public intervention is required to support separated parents and reduce the risk of poverty.