Spousal Maintenance (Alimony) in Texas

Texas courts can order one former spouse to support the other after a divorce, but only in limited situations and within firm limits on money and time. The Family Code calls it spousal maintenance, and chapter 8 sets a high bar to qualify, a monthly cap of $5,000 or 20 percent of the payer's gross income (whichever is lower), and, in most cases, a time limit of five, seven, or ten years depending on how long the marriage lasted. Spouses can agree to more in a settlement, but the extra portion is harder to enforce.

Maintenance, alimony, and support: three different things

People use the word alimony for several arrangements that Texas law treats separately. Under section 8.001(1), maintenance is an award in a divorce case of periodic payments from one spouse's future income to support the other. It is ordered by a judge and comes with the limits described below.

Contractual alimony is different. It is support the spouses negotiate themselves and write into a settlement agreement, which section 7.006 allows. Temporary spousal support is a third category: an order made while the case is still pending, under section 6.502. Each runs on different rules. And for couples who never married, section 8.061 rules out a maintenance order between unmarried cohabitants under any circumstances.

Who qualifies for court-ordered maintenance

Eligibility under section 8.051 has two layers, and both must be met. The first is a property test. The spouse asking for maintenance must show that, once the marriage ends, that spouse will lack enough property, including separate property, to provide for minimum reasonable needs. Little or no income alone does not satisfy this step.

The second layer requires one of four specific situations:

• Family violence. The other spouse has a conviction or deferred adjudication for a crime that also counts as family violence, committed during the marriage against the requesting spouse or that spouse's child, within two years before the divorce was filed or while it is pending. This ground has no minimum marriage length.
• Disability. An incapacitating physical or mental disability keeps the requesting spouse from earning enough to meet minimum reasonable needs.
• A marriage of 10 years or more. The spouses were married at least 10 years and the requesting spouse lacks the ability to earn enough income.
• Caring for a disabled child. The requesting spouse has custody of a child of the marriage, of any age, who needs substantial care and personal supervision because of a disability, and that caregiving keeps the spouse from earning enough.

The 10-year ground carries an extra hurdle. Under section 8.053, the law presumes maintenance on that basis is not warranted unless the requesting spouse has made diligent efforts to earn sufficient income or develop job skills while the couple was separated and while the divorce was pending. The presumption is rebuttable, meaning evidence can overcome it.

Timing also matters. Section 8.057(d) states that losing a job or becoming disabled after the divorce is not grounds for starting maintenance. The claim belongs in the divorce case itself.

How a judge decides the amount and terms

Qualifying does not decide how much. Once a spouse is eligible, section 8.052 directs the court to set the nature, amount, duration, and manner of payment by considering all relevant factors. The statute names eleven, among them each spouse's ability to meet minimum reasonable needs independently, education and job skills and the time needed for training, the length of the marriage, the requesting spouse's age, work history, and health, the effect of child support payments, hiding or wasting community property, contributions to the other spouse's education or earning power, homemaker contributions, marital misconduct such as adultery and cruel treatment, and any history of family violence. Because the list is open, two judges looking at similar facts can reach different results.

The monthly cap

Section 8.055(a) forbids a court from ordering monthly maintenance above the lesser of $5,000 or 20 percent of the paying spouse's average monthly gross income. The arithmetic is simple: a spouse grossing $6,000 a month can be ordered to pay at most $1,200; a spouse grossing $40,000 a month hits the $5,000 ceiling. The 20 percent figure is a cap, not a target.

Gross income has its own definition in section 8.055(a-1), and it is not the same as the net resources figure used for Texas child support. It includes 100 percent of wages, salary, commissions, overtime, tips, and bonuses, plus investment, self-employment, and net rental income, pensions, severance, and unemployment benefits. It excludes social security, SSI, disability benefits, workers' compensation, VA service-connected disability pay, and public assistance.

How long payments can last

Section 8.054(a) ties the maximum length of an order to the length of the marriage, measured from the date of the order:

• Up to 5 years if the marriage lasted at least 10 but not more than 20 years, or lasted under 10 years and eligibility rests on the family violence ground.
• Up to 7 years if the marriage lasted at least 20 but not more than 30 years.
• Up to 10 years if the marriage lasted 30 years or more.

The same subsection requires the court to keep the order to the shortest reasonable period that will let the receiving spouse earn enough to meet minimum reasonable needs. A longer period within the cap is allowed only when that ability is substantially or totally diminished by a physical or mental disability, by caring for an infant or young child of the marriage, or by another compelling impediment.

The one open-ended exception is in section 8.054(b). For a spouse who qualified because of the spouse's own disability, or because of caring for a disabled child of the marriage, the court may order maintenance for as long as the spouse continues to meet that eligibility test. The court may schedule periodic reviews, and continuing the order is subject to the procedure for a motion to modify. Section 8.054 was last amended in 2023.

Agreed maintenance in a settlement

Support can also be settled by agreement. Section 7.006(a) lets spouses make a written agreement covering property, debts, and maintenance of either spouse, and either may revise or back out of it before the divorce is granted unless another rule of law makes it binding. If the judge finds the terms just and right, section 7.006(b) makes them binding on the court, which can write the agreement into the decree or incorporate it by reference. If the judge finds them unfair, section 7.006(c) allows the court to ask for a revised agreement or set the case for a contested hearing.

Parties can agree to terms a court could not impose on its own, such as a larger monthly payment or a longer term. Chapter 8 limits those extra terms in three places:

• Section 8.059(a) lets the court enforce a court-approved agreement for periodic maintenance by contempt, but section 8.059(a-1) bars contempt for any portion exceeding the amount or duration the court could have ordered.
• Section 8.101(a-2) applies the same limit to court-ordered income withholding.
• Section 8.101(b) states that the withholding subchapter does not apply to contractual alimony at all, unless the contract specifically permits withholding or the payments are not made on time under the contract.

The statute does not spell out every remedy for the portion above the caps, and enforcement of an agreed decree depends heavily on its exact wording.

Temporary support while the divorce is pending

In most cases a Texas divorce cannot be granted before the 60th day after filing, and contested cases can take much longer. During that time, section 6.502(a)(2) allows the court, on a party's motion or its own, after notice and a hearing, to order payments for the support of either spouse. Section 6.502 was last amended in 2025, and subsection (a-1) adds a timing protection: if the court sends the case to mediation on its own motion while a temporary order request is pending, it cannot push the first hearing on that request more than 30 days past its original date.

Section 6.502 does not include chapter 8's eligibility tests, $5,000 cap, or duration limits. What a court awards on a temporary basis depends on the evidence and the judge, and local practice varies by county. For the rest of the case, from petition to decree, see the Texas divorce process guide.

When maintenance ends or changes

Section 8.056(a) ends the duty to pay future maintenance automatically when either party dies or when the receiving spouse remarries. Under section 8.056(b), the court must also end it, after a hearing, if it finds the receiving spouse is living with a dating or romantic partner in a permanent place of abode on a continuing basis. Under section 8.056(c), none of these events cancels payments that came due before the end date.

Either party affected by the order can ask to change the amount. The steps in section 8.057 look like this:

1. File a motion in the court that made the order

   Section 8.057(a) sends the motion back to the court that originally rendered the maintenance order or decree, not to a new court.

2. Serve the other side with citation

   Under section 8.057(b), notice works like a new lawsuit: formal service of citation, with an answer due by 10 a.m. on the first Monday after 20 days have passed since service. The court sets a hearing under Rule 245 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.

3. Prove a material and substantial change

   Section 8.057(c) requires a material and substantial change in circumstances that happened after the order, including changes in the section 8.052 factors that relate to either party or to a disabled child of the marriage.

4. The change applies going forward only

   A modification reaches only payments that accrue after the motion was filed. The court may lower maintenance but may not raise it above the amount or remaining duration of the original order.

A newer rule, section 8.063, took effect September 1, 2025. In a termination, modification, or enforcement proceeding, the judge may award a party reasonable and necessary legal fees, court costs, and expenses, and may order them paid straight to the lawyer.

Enforcing unpaid maintenance

Any payment not made on time is an arrearage under section 8.058. Under section 8.059(a), the court can hold the paying spouse in contempt. Under section 8.059(b), after citation and a hearing, the court can enter a money judgment for the arrearage, collectible like any debt judgment, including through a qualified domestic relations order reaching retirement benefits under section 8.351.

The paying spouse has a narrow defense to contempt. Section 8.059(c) requires proof of all four of these: inability to pay the ordered amount, no property that could be sold or borrowed against, an unsuccessful attempt to borrow, and no known source of the money. The defense must be pleaded and proven by a preponderance of the evidence. Once the obligation ends and the payer is not behind, section 8.0591 requires the receiving spouse to return overpayments.

Income withholding from paychecks

Under section 8.101(a), the court may order maintenance withheld directly from the paying spouse's disposable earnings. Section 8.102 lets the court add withholding toward past-due amounts, whichever clears them faster: enough to pay them off within two years, or 20 percent of the current withholding. Section 8.106 caps total withholding, counting child support, at 50 percent of disposable earnings, and under section 8.105 child support withholding comes ahead of maintenance. When a person owes both maintenance and child support, section 8.062 requires the court to route maintenance through the state disbursement unit.

Every section above links to its current official text so readers can check the wording themselves, the practice Texas Legal Answers applies on each guide. Whether a particular spouse qualifies, and for how much, turns on facts a statute cannot weigh, so many people look for free or low-cost legal aid before a hearing. Related topics are collected in all family law guides on this site.