When a marriage breaks down, either husband or wife can be ordered to pay maintenance. The court can also transfer the family home to either spouse.

But co-habitees who split up have no such recourse to the law.

The Law Society, the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, is considering a plan from its Family Law Committee that unmarried couples who split up should have the right to apply for maintenance and other financial benefits.

Same-sex couples

Gay couples who live together would also have the same rights under the proposals.

The committee said it was hard to draw a distinction between homosexual and heterosexual co-habitants.

Under the proposals, maintenance and capital payments for those who split up after living together would be more limited than if the couple was divorcing, it adds.

The committee accepts that some may see the plans as undermining marriage.

But it says it needs the tools to deal with the problems that arise when a relationship ends.

If the society adopts the proposals they will be sent on to the government's law reform advisers.