Indiana calls spousal support maintenance — and compared to most states, the rules are unusually strict. There's no formula, no default alimony, and in most Indiana divorces, one spouse simply doesn't qualify for any maintenance at all.
The short answer: Indiana courts may only award maintenance in three narrow situations defined by statute. If your case doesn't fit one of those three categories, a judge generally has no legal authority to order maintenance — regardless of how long the marriage lasted or how large the income gap is.
This guide covers exactly who qualifies, how courts set the amount, the 3-year cap on the most common type, and how Indiana compares to states that give judges broader discretion.
Indiana law uses the word maintenance throughout the statute. You may hear "alimony" in everyday conversation, but that term doesn't appear in Indiana's divorce code. In your paperwork, court orders, and any future modification hearings, the official term is maintenance.
The concept is familiar — financial support paid from one former spouse to the other after divorce. But Indiana's approach to it is much narrower than most states. The governing statute is I.C. § 31-15-7-2, and it limits maintenance to three specific situations.
Under I.C. § 31-15-7-2, a court may find that maintenance is necessary in only these three circumstances.
If a spouse is physically or mentally incapacitated to the extent that their ability to support themselves is materially affected, the court may order maintenance for the duration of that incapacity, subject to further court order.
This is the only category where Indiana maintenance may be open-ended. There's no statutory time limit — the support lasts as long as the incapacity does. But it's also subject to review and can be modified or terminated if the condition improves or circumstances change.
The incapacity must be real, documented, and material to the spouse's ability to earn income. A general claim that someone is struggling after the divorce isn't enough. Courts look for medical evidence of a condition that genuinely limits self-support.
A court may award maintenance to a spouse who meets both of these conditions: they lack sufficient property (including marital assets received in the divorce) to provide for their own needs, AND they are the custodian of a child whose physical or mental incapacity requires that custodian to forgo employment.
Like incapacity maintenance, caregiver maintenance has no fixed statutory term — it lasts as long as the child's condition requires the custodial parent to forgo employment. But it cannot extend beyond the child's 18th birthday.
The child's condition, like the spouse's in category 1, must be documented and material. The court needs to find that the child's needs genuinely prevent the custodial parent from working — not just that working would be inconvenient or difficult.
This is the most common form of Indiana maintenance. A court may award rehabilitative support to a spouse who meets all three of these conditions: they lack sufficient property to provide for their needs, they have been out of the workforce or had their education interrupted due to homemaking or child-rearing responsibilities during the marriage, and they need education or training to become self-supporting.
Rehabilitative maintenance is capped at 3 years from the date of the final divorce decree. A court cannot extend it beyond that limit, and renewals are not available under the statute.
Indiana has no formula for calculating the dollar amount of maintenance. Courts use discretion, guided by the circumstances of the case. For rehabilitative maintenance, I.C. § 31-15-7-2(3) points courts toward four specific factors.
| # | Factor | What courts look at |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Educational level at the time of marriage and at the time of filing | Did the requesting spouse enter the marriage with a degree or marketable skills? What's their current educational level? A spouse who has a college degree but simply hasn't used it is in a different position than one who left school early for the marriage. |
| 2 | Whether education or employment was interrupted for homemaking | Did the requesting spouse leave school, turn down career opportunities, or stop working to raise children or manage the household? The more direct the sacrifice, the stronger the argument for rehabilitative support. |
| 3 | Earning capacity of each spouse | What can each spouse realistically earn going forward? Courts look at current income, marketable skills, work history, and what the requesting spouse could earn after reasonable retraining or education. |
| 4 | Time and expense needed to acquire sufficient education or training | How long would it take for the requesting spouse to complete a degree, certification, or vocational program? What does that program cost? The answer shapes both the duration and the amount of support the court considers. |
For incapacity and caregiver maintenance, the amount is based more broadly on the requesting spouse's financial needs and the paying spouse's ability to contribute. Courts consider income from all sources, monthly living expenses, assets, and any existing obligations like child support or debt payments.
In practice, Indiana maintenance awards can range widely — from a few hundred dollars per month to several thousand — depending on the financial gap between the spouses and the specific facts of the case. There's no published statewide average because awards are so fact-specific and the category is used relatively infrequently compared to other states.
Hypothetical: Alex and Jordan were married for 11 years in Indiana. Alex earns $6,500/month as an engineer. Jordan left a nursing program two years into the marriage to stay home with their two children and hasn't worked professionally since. Jordan now has some college credits but no degree or certification.
Jordan applies for rehabilitative maintenance. Does Jordan qualify? The court would look at: (1) Jordan had some college at marriage but left school early (factor 1); (2) Jordan interrupted education directly for homemaking (factor 2); (3) Jordan's current earning capacity without credentials is limited (factor 3); and (4) completing a nursing degree would take approximately 2 years and cost $15,000–$20,000 (factor 4).
If the court finds Jordan qualifies, it might award maintenance of $1,200–$1,800/month for up to 2 years — enough to help cover living expenses while Jordan completes school. The award could be structured to end when Jordan's nursing license is issued, or on a fixed date, whichever comes first — but it cannot exceed 3 years from the final decree under any circumstances.
This is a hypothetical illustration only. Actual outcomes vary significantly based on individual circumstances, judicial discretion, and how facts are presented at the hearing.
This is the question that catches many Indiana divorcing spouses off guard. In most states — including neighboring Ohio, Missouri, and Michigan — judges have broad discretion to award alimony based on factors like income disparity, marriage length, and standard of living. Indiana judges don't have that authority unless one of the three statutory categories applies.
That means a spouse who stayed home for 20 years, has no income, and is perfectly healthy with no caregiving obligations may receive no maintenance at all in Indiana — even if there's a significant income gap — because they don't fit the rehabilitative category (no career interruption + education need), the incapacity category, or the caregiver category.
This isn't a loophole. It's how Indiana's statute was written. Courts have consistently held that the statutory categories are exclusive: no maintenance outside the three listed situations.
Indiana is an equitable distribution state with a notable 50/50 presumption — one of very few non-community-property states that starts from equal division. Under I.C. § 31-15-7-5, there is a rebuttable presumption that an equal division of marital property is just and reasonable, though a judge can deviate based on seven statutory factors. For a full overview of Indiana property division, see our Indiana divorce finances guide.
The property division and the maintenance question are evaluated separately — but they're connected. A spouse who receives a substantial property award may have a harder time arguing they "lack sufficient property to provide for their own needs," which is a threshold condition for both rehabilitative and caregiver maintenance. The more assets a spouse receives, the weaker the maintenance argument generally becomes.
This means that in some Indiana divorces, the trade-off between property and maintenance is deliberate: accepting a larger asset award in exchange for waiving a maintenance claim (or vice versa) may be part of a settlement negotiation.
Incapacity maintenance and caregiver maintenance are both "subject to further order of the court" — meaning either spouse may return to court and request a modification if circumstances change materially. If the disabled spouse recovers and becomes able to work, the paying spouse may petition to reduce or end support. If the child's condition changes, the same applies.
Rehabilitative maintenance is generally set for a fixed term. Once entered, it runs its course unless the parties agree otherwise or there's a compelling reason to revisit it. Because Indiana law caps rehabilitative maintenance at 3 years, there's no avenue to extend it once the term expires.
Indiana maintenance does not automatically terminate on remarriage under the statute itself — unlike some other states where remarriage is an automatic termination event. However, divorce agreements and court orders commonly include a remarriage termination clause, and courts may consider remarriage as a change in circumstances that reduces the need for support.
To understand how maintenance duration rules work across different states, see our guide on how long alimony lasts.
For divorces finalized after December 31, 2018, the federal tax treatment of spousal support changed nationwide under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Maintenance is no longer tax-deductible for the paying spouse and no longer counts as taxable income for the recipient — regardless of which state the divorce takes place in.
This makes maintenance more expensive on an after-tax basis for the paying spouse compared to the pre-2019 rules. Indiana has not modified its maintenance statute in response to the tax change. Courts consider each spouse's ability to pay and financial needs, so the tax impact may come up indirectly in how the amount is argued — but there's no adjustment mechanism built into the Indiana statute the way some other states have considered.
For more on how divorce affects your overall tax picture, see our guide on divorce and taxes.
Because Indiana has such narrow eligibility rules, the first job at a maintenance hearing is proving you fit one of the three categories. That requires documentation. For rehabilitative maintenance, this typically means records of educational interruption — enrollment records, transcripts, letters from employers showing career impact — plus evidence of the retraining program you're pursuing and its cost and timeline.
For incapacity maintenance, medical documentation of the condition and its impact on earning capacity is central. For caregiver maintenance, medical records about the child's condition and an explanation of why it prevents outside employment are essential.
Indiana courts also want a clear picture of both spouses' finances. Monthly income and expense statements, tax returns, and evidence of earning capacity from both sides are standard. Understanding your full financial picture before that hearing matters — and our divorce financial calculator can help you map it out.
Maintenance is one piece. Map out property division, child support, and your post-divorce budget all in one place.
Try the Divorce Financial Calculator →