Alimony in Vermont: Who Qualifies and How Long It Lasts

In Vermont, "alimony" is legally called spousal maintenance, and a court can only order it if the requesting spouse (1) lacks enough income or property — including whatever they receive in the property division — to cover their reasonable needs, and (2) either cannot support themselves through appropriate employment at the standard of living the couple had during the marriage, or is the one taking care of the couple's child. If neither condition is met, Vermont law does not authorize a maintenance award, no matter how long the marriage lasted.

How Vermont decides who qualifies for maintenance

Maintenance in Vermont is not automatic and it is not tied only to income differences. Under 15 V.S.A. § 752(a), the court must first find that the spouse asking for maintenance genuinely needs it — meaning their own income and property (including what they're awarded in the divorce's property settlement) aren't enough for their reasonable needs, and they can't reasonably earn enough to support themselves at the marital standard of living. That threshold need can also be met if the requesting spouse is the custodial parent of the couple's child, since caregiving responsibilities can limit employment.

Only after that threshold is met does the court decide how much maintenance to order and for how long. Vermont law directs the court to weigh a list of factors, including:

• The requesting spouse's financial resources and property, and their ability to meet their needs independently
• The time and expense it would take that spouse to get the education or training needed for suitable employment
• The standard of living the couple had during the marriage
• How long the marriage lasted
• Each spouse's age and physical and emotional condition
• The paying spouse's ability to meet their own needs while also paying maintenance
• Inflation
• The effect of both spouses reaching full Social Security retirement age

No single factor controls; the court weighs all of them together based on the specific facts of the marriage.

How much and how long maintenance typically lasts

Time-sensitive: Vermont has published advisory maintenance guidelines (effective June 5, 2017) that judges and attorneys often use as a reference point, but these guidelines are advisory only — a court is not required to follow them, and the underlying numbers could be revised or updated after this writing. Always confirm the current guideline figures with your Vermont Family Division or a Vermont family law attorney before relying on them.

As a general reference, the guidelines tie a suggested maintenance amount to a percentage of the difference between the spouses' gross incomes, and a suggested duration to a percentage of how long the marriage lasted, scaled up with the length of the marriage. Roughly speaking, marriages under five years fall at the low end of both amount and duration, while marriages of twenty years or more fall at the high end of both. The exact percentage ranges vary by marriage-length bracket, and because these are guideline ranges rather than fixed formulas, the amount and length a court actually orders in your case can differ from the guideline numbers based on the § 752(b) factors above.

Because of this variability, do not assume a specific dollar figure or end date applies to your situation — ask the court, a legal aid provider, or a Vermont family law attorney to run the current guideline calculation using your actual numbers.

Temporary maintenance while the divorce is pending

Vermont law allows a court to order temporary — sometimes called "pendente lite" — spousal maintenance while a divorce case is still working its way through the Family Division, so a lower-earning spouse isn't left without support during the case. A temporary maintenance order does not automatically continue after the divorce is final; it merges into whatever the final decree provides, which may set a different amount or duration once all the evidence and factors are considered.

Changing or ending a maintenance order later

A Vermont maintenance order is not necessarily permanent or fixed once entered — but it is also not easy to change. Either spouse can file a motion asking the court to annul, increase, decrease, or otherwise modify an existing maintenance order, including one that was based on the spouses' own agreement or stipulation. To succeed, the spouse asking for the change must show a "real, substantial, and unanticipated change of circumstances" since the order was entered. Vermont law does not define every situation that qualifies, so whether a job loss, remarriage, retirement, or health change meets that standard depends on the specific facts — this is a good point to talk to a Vermont family law attorney or your local legal aid office rather than assume a change automatically qualifies.

Alimony and bankruptcy

This matters if either spouse is considering bankruptcy. Under federal bankruptcy law, spousal maintenance (along with child support) is treated as a "domestic support obligation." That means it cannot be wiped out in bankruptcy, and it gets paid ahead of most other unsecured debts if the paying spouse files. Debts from a property settlement in the divorce (as opposed to ongoing support) are also generally not dischargeable in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If your ex-spouse (or you) is contemplating bankruptcy, this is a signal to get advice specific to your situation rather than assume a maintenance obligation will simply disappear.

Residency requirements to file for divorce in Vermont

Before a Vermont court can even consider maintenance, the divorce case itself has to be properly filed there. Under Vermont law, at least one spouse must have lived in Vermont for at least six months before filing, and the court cannot actually grant the divorce unless one spouse has lived in Vermont for a full year before the final hearing. Divorce and maintenance cases are both handled in the Family Division of the Vermont Superior Court.

What you can do in Vermont

1. Gather your financial picture first. Pull together income, expenses, assets, and debts for both spouses — this is the evidence the court uses to decide whether the § 752(a) threshold is met and, if so, how much maintenance should be.
2. Confirm you meet Vermont's residency rules before or as you file, since the court cannot decree a divorce without the required residency being met.
3. Ask about temporary maintenance if you need support while the case is pending — don't wait for the final hearing if you have an immediate need.
4. Get the current advisory guideline numbers run for your specific income and marriage length from the Family Division, a legal aid provider, or a Vermont family law attorney, rather than relying on general percentage ranges.
5. If circumstances later change significantly — job loss, retirement, remarriage, health changes — talk to a Vermont family law attorney promptly about whether it's a "real, substantial, and unanticipated" change that could support a modification under § 758.
6. If bankruptcy is a possibility for either spouse, get advice on how domestic support obligations and property-settlement debts are treated before assuming any maintenance obligation will be discharged.

This article is general information about Vermont law, not legal advice for your specific situation — talk to a licensed Vermont family law attorney about your case.