The 1975 Act Turns Fifty: Why Reform was Needed and What Changed

Today marks 50 years since the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, more familiarly known as the 1975 Act, received Royal Assent. Since coming into force on 1 April 1976, the 1975 Act has reset the balance between testamentary freedom and protecting and remaining accountable to family members and dependants in England and Wales.

This article opens our anniversary series, looking at the history behind the Act and what mischief it intended to remedy. Over the coming months, we will explore practical themes under the 1975 Act, including spousal claims and adult child claims, leading up to the commencement anniversary of the 1975 Act on 1 April 2026.

Why reform was needed: the road from 1938 to 1975

Following the introduction of the Law of Property Act 1925, which abolished a widow’s right to a one-third life interest in her husband’s estate, and up to 1938, English law allowed a person to give all their property by will to a charity or to individuals outside their family, leaving nothing to their surviving spouse or children. It was not until 1938 that the law provided a remedy to family members who were potentially left destitute. The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1938 (the 1938 Act) introduced a right for individuals to apply to court for maintenance out of a deceased person’s estate.

Under the 1938 Act, the pool of applicants was very limited. Only a wife or husband, unmarried daughter, infant son, or a son or daughter with a disability could apply. Non‑relatives and adult children were therefore entirely without legal recourse.

Even if an individual was eligible to apply, the relief they could receive under the 1938 Act was temporary. The maintenance would cease when either the husband or wife remarried, or when a child without a disability married or turned 21.

Legislation reflecting social change

Later legislation, such as the Matrimonial Causes Act 1965, enabled a former spouse to apply to the court for an order for maintenance to be provided from the deceased’s estate where proper financial provision had not been made by the deceased – these sections were subsequently repealed on the commencement of the 1975 Act. By the early 1970s therefore, gradual amendments had extended the 1938 regime to former spouses and some intestacy cases, but the framework remained narrow and rigid.

Other legislation driven by social change was enacted in England and Wales around the same time, including the Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into force on 29 December 1975) and the NHS (Family Planning) Act 1967 which made contraception readily available through the NHS to all.

In the 1970s, at the same time as changes were being made to the law on the above social issues, the Law Commission reviewed the law on family provision. There was a clear concern about vulnerable partners and dependants being left with nothing.

In a 1971 working paper, the Law Commission considered whether the law of family provision should be replaced or supplemented by fixed rights of inheritance, whereby a set amount of the estate would pass automatically to the surviving spouse and a further proportion to the children, as is the case in other jurisdictions such as France, Spain and Germany. This consideration was perhaps brought to the fore by the UK having joined the European Economic Community (as it then was) in 1973. However, the Commission settled instead on pursuing a comprehensive reform and codification of family provision, in the form of the 1975 Act.

Contemporary views about the 1975 Act

The stated aim of the 1975 Act was justice and compassion: to address the hardship caused when wills or intestacy failed to make “reasonable financial provision” for those with a fair claim, without dismantling the core principle of testamentary freedom. Parliament was also persuaded that courts needed wider tools to deal with modern family realities and to prevent evasive arrangements intended to defeat legitimate claims.

The 1975 Act was debated in the House of Lords on 20 March 1975. The Hansard transcript shows that 1975 Act had received a mixed reception, with one evening paper reportedly referring to it as a "mistress's charter". The debate makes for interesting reading, with the Earl of Mansfield commenting that, “The noble and learned Lord [Chancellor] was careful not to say that all the world loves a lover; but, so far as this Bill is concerned, lovers are given a much fairer crack of a whip than ever before.”

Lord Janner, a practising solicitor, was complimentary of the work undertaken by the Law Commission in producing their reports and added “I am sure that the country will be pleased to know that these provisions are being made and that special regard has been paid to the human aspect which is so very important in these matters.”

Lord Wilberforce, who had experience of hearing claims brought under the 1938 Act as a judge in the Chancery Division, whilst supportive of the introduction of the 1975 Act commented that in his experience “when one is sitting there and trying to make up one's mind what is fair and right for a particular man, of whose life history one knows little, what it is fair and right to do as regards his divorced wife, his widow, a possible mistress, illegitimate children—to decide how to distribute the merits and demerits between these people is painful and exceedingly difficult. I am by no means certain that one is able, in many cases, to reach the right result. All one can do is to do one's best and hope that the result is what it should be. But it is not an ideal solution. It is not made ideal by using words such as "fair", "reasonable", "just", and so on.”

Notwithstanding the debate amongst the Lords and acknowledgment of the complex issues involved in considering claims for financial provision, the 1975 Act was passed without need for further debate.

The pivotal shift in the 1975 Act: wider eligibility and broader remedies

The 1975 Act replaced and repealed the earlier legislation, creating a single, modern process for these claims. The main changes were twofold.

First, it significantly expanded who could apply. In place of the 1938 Act’s limited list of applicants, claims could be brought by a surviving spouse, a former spouse who had not remarried, any child (including adults), those treated as a child of the family, and persons being maintained by the deceased immediately before death. Later amendments added cohabitants who had lived with the deceased as partners for two years (Law Reform (Succession) Act 1995) and civil partners (Civil Partnership Act 2004), reflecting social and legal developments.

Second, it broadened what the court could do. Moving beyond mere maintenance, the court was empowered to make periodical payments, lump sums, transfer or settle property, acquire property for the applicant, and trusts holding the estate. These flexible remedies allow the court to tailor provision to the applicant’s needs and the estate’s composition. To make these powers effective, the 1975 Act also brought additional assets into scope, including the deceased’s share of jointly held property (brought in by the Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Act 2014) and certain lifetime dispositions or will contracts intended to defeat claims, subject to detailed safeguards.

The legacy of the 1975 Act

By widening eligibility, enlarging the court’s tools and consolidating the law, the 1975 Act has enabled case‑by‑case fairness and has been updated over time to reflect changing family patterns. Fifty years on, its blend of structure and flexibility remains a core route for family provision on death in England and Wales.

Our next article in the series will look at claims brought by spouses and cohabitants.