Divorce
If you get divorced or dissolve a civil partnership, the Court will take your pension assets into account when determining any settlement. Therefore you and your ex-partner will need to consider how to treat your benefits as part of any divorce settlement.
There are three main ways of treating your pension benefits during a divorce or dissolution:
Pension sharing – the pension is split at the time of divorce or dissolution so that you each receive a separate pension pot and can continue to build pension benefits for the future.
Pension offsetting – you each keep your own pension benefits but adjust the proportion of other assets to take account of the value of the pension benefits. For example, you could keep your pension and your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner could get a larger share of the value of the house.
Pension earmarking – arranging that when one person’s pension benefits start to be drawn down, part of them will be paid to the other person.
Please note that a Court may require a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value and this is not the value of your Annual Benefit Statement. If required please complete the request form below.
Requesting a Cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) for Divorce
A cash equivalent transfer value or CETV is a monetary value which represents the worth of the benefits to be given up.
You will need to complete our CETV form to give us the authority to provide you, and your solicitor (if applicable) with the required information.
Once we’ve received your consent form we will write to you with the first valuation.
What if you remarry or enter into a new civil partnership?
If your LGPS benefits are subject to a Pension Sharing Order and you remarry, enter into a new civil partnership or into a cohabiting partnership, any spouse’s pension, civil partner’s pension or eligible cohabiting partner’s pension payable following your death will also be reduced.
If you remarry or enter into a new civil partnership and then divorce or dissolve your civil partnership again, your remaining pension rights can be subject to further division, although a Pension Sharing Order cannot be issued if an Earmarking Order has already been issued against your LGPS pension rights. Similarly, an Earmarking Order cannot be issued if your pension benefits are already subject to a Pension Sharing Order in respect of the marriage or civil partnership.