The last Monday in September is the most common day for British couples to decide on a divorce, according to a new study.
Common wisdom has stated that the first Monday after Christmas or New Year’s Day is when married couples would settle on a split.
But a report from The Sunday Telegraph shows that when September ends is when separations are most commonly agreed upon.
The research the paper reported on based its conclusion on an examination of the Ministry of Justice’s online divorce service, which logged 225 requests on Monday, September 30 last year.
That was more than double the normal daily average, substantially higher than an average Monday figure of 138.4, and it was also the highest daily number since the service was launched in April 201
The study showed there was also a spike after the Christmas period, but it was not as pronounced as that on the last Monday of September.
“There have been suggestions there is this big day when people get divorced after Christmas because they have fallen out over the turkey,” Simon Blain, a partner specialising in family law at law firm Forsters, said.
“Those who work in the industry have been trying to downplay that for years because we know that divorce tends not to be a decision that people make in haste.
“The correlation between the peak dates and divorce is generally at the end of the long school holidays, which often provide time for reflection and thought when you take time out of work and get the headspace to make big decisions in your life.”
