One in five ‘have stayed in relationship for financial reasons’

As many as one in five people in the UK have remained in a relationship that was lacking romance because they did not have the money to break up and go it alone.

New research by DebtAdvisoryCentre.co.uk found 18.9 per cent of adults have at some stage stayed with a partner they no longer loved purely as a result of their financial situation.

Of those who admitted to doing so, two-fifths said they had remained in a love-less relationship for more than a year simply to maintain their financial strength.

London was named as the place where the highest percentage of couples are staying together for the sake of money, with 35.5 per cent of respondents in the city saying they have done this at some point.

This put it some way ahead of the West Midlands, which finished bottom of that particular list, with a figure of just 11.8 per cent having stayed together for the sake of finances.

Ian Williams, a spokesman for the website, said: "It's shocking to hear that so many people feel forced to stay in a relationship for longer than they want to because of their finances, but it's perhaps not that surprising.

"It's tough to end the bonds we create in a relationship, and financial ties can often be the hardest to break."

While one in five of those who stayed in a relationship longer than they wanted to did so for up to three months, the majority remained in such a situation for much longer.

It is surely a better option to cut ties with someone as soon as a relationship is dead, before settling financial matters and moving on.

One of the best ways people who have come out of romance-less unions can inject some excitement into their lives is by signing up to an online dating site, where thousands of singletons are ready to build new relationships.