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 The Civil Partnership Act creates a new legal relationship of civil partnership, which two people of the same-sex can form by signing a registration document. It also provides same-sex couples who form a civil partnership with parity of treatment in a wide range of legal matters with those opposite-sex couples who enter into a civil marriage.
Important rights and responsibilities will flow from forming a civil partnership, helping same-sex couples to organise their lives together.
Provisions in the Act include:
- a duty to provide reasonable maintenance for your civil partner and any children of the family;
- civil partners to be assessed in the same way as spouses for child support;
- equitable treatment for the purposes of life assurance;
- employment and pension benefits;
- recognition under intestacy rules;
- access to fatal accidents compensation;
- protection from domestic violence; and
- recognition for immigration and nationality purposes.
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