- Go to the View tab, then choose Draft.
- Go to the References tab and click Show Footnotes.
- In the drop-down list that appears in the Footnotes area, choose Footnote Separator.
- Delete any extra spaces, carriage returns etc. It’s handy to have “show non-printing characters” switched on.
- Repeat for the other one – I think it was Continuous Footnote Separator.
- Go back to View and switch back to Print Layout.
source: https://krysjez.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/quick-fix-space-before-footnotes-in-ms-word/
Or
When viewing the footnote separator (in the footnotes pane), right-click and select Paragraph from the context menu. In the Paragraph dialog box, click the Indents and Spacing tab, and make sure that Spacing Before is set to zero. You may also want to change the Line Spacing to "Single."
Also, to make sure no blank paragraphs is included with the separator, click the ¶ button on the Home tab. Paragraph marks are represented by pilcrows, ¶. Delete any excessive paragraphs if present.