A survey seeks to cast light on the views that unmarried and married couples have about the financial consequences of separation for their for children.

According to a new study, nearly half of UK citizens mistakenly believe that unmarried couples have the same financial rights in regards to their children as their married counterparts do. This misconception has highlighted the urgent need to process the appropriate legislation through parliament, UK-based law firm Seddons has said.

Some 47 per cent of the adults surveyed thought, wrongly, that there was no difference between unmarried and married couples when it comes to the rights they have to seek additional financial support for any children they have together, the survey found.

Only 27 per cent of respondents believed that unmarried couples possessed some of the same rights as married couples when it came to child-related financial settlement separate from any required mandatory maintenance payments. Whereas 8 per cent had the misperception that unmarried couples have none of the same rights as married couples in such situations.

“These insights shine a stark spotlight on the widespread confusion and misperceptions which exist in terms of the rights of unmarried parents regarding child-related financial settlements. It also appears that the single avenue which does exist – Schedule 1 claims – is widely underutilised, as shown in the data we’ve unearthed,” said the head of family at Seddons, Deborah Jeff.

The legislation states that the only way for cohabiting parents who are separating, without ever being married, to seek financial support for a child is under the Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989. Requested statistics from the Ministry of Justice by Seddons indicated that few couples used that opportunity.

In 2014 only 141 such awards were recorded under Schedule 1 by the Central Family Court (formerly the Principal Registry), which handles the vast majority of such claims in the London area. It is a disproportionate number when considering the overall number of unmarried parents, both opposite- and same-sex, with dependent children in the UK was nearly 2.1 million as of 2014 according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, the report said.

This situation, Seddons said, demonstrates the urgent need for legal reform and clarification of these rights, particularly because of the increasing trend of cohabiting yet unmarried families in the UK, which grew by almost 30 per cent over the last decade, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics.

The Co-Habitation Rights bill has now been reintroduced in the House of Lords after being abandoned in the last parliament. The legislation concerns the rights of unmarried parents for these types of financial settlements and should be amongst the key priorities of the new Conservative government, Seddons advised.

“The newly reintroduced Cohabitation Rights Bill would go some way towards clarifying unmarried couples’ rights, so it is therefore imperative that the newly elected government tackles this glaring issue with utmost urgency. Doing so would give much-needed clarity and redress to the millions of UK families involving unmarried parents. No longer can the proverbial can be kicked down the road on this issue,” Jeff said.

The Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 allows the court to make financial orders such as periodical payments for costs over and above statutory maintenance levels, such as school fees. A capital lump sum is also a possibility, which can be used to buy a home or a car for the child. Another option is a property adjustment, which is a transfer or settlement of property to provide a home for the child until they reach adulthood.

“There is clearly widespread public support for equal rights between married and unmarried couples in this area. However, the law remains different and often less generous for children of unmarried parents in terms of capital settlements and is in dire need of reform to bring it into the modern age,” Jeff said.

Delving deeper into the survey, discrepancies in beliefs between women and men were found, with 51 per cent of women believing that unmarried couples share all of the same rights whereas 42 per cent of men believed the same thing.

Differences between age groups were found as well. Over half (51 per cent) of people in the oldest age bracket, over 55 years of age, thought that the same rights applied to both married and unmarried couples. In the three lowest age brackets, altogether people aged between 18 and 44, 42 per cent held the same belief.

The survey was undertaken by YouGov for Seddons. It was carried out between 8 and 9 April 2015 and had 2,074 British adult respondents.