Can spouse withdraw pension before finances are agreed?

[Lifechangesontheway]

Ex is late fifties. We are going through divorce. I am pretty sure he is going through the process of withdrawing monies from his pension fund. We haven’t got anywhere close to reaching a financial settlement yet. His pension fund is 10x mine due to me looking after the kids when they were growing up. I don’t have sufficient evidence to ask the court to produce an order preventing him from doing this. If he does withdraw these funds can I ask the court to offset the amount he has taken against house equity when we eventually get around to the court making a financial order? I know I need a solicitor and I will be looking into that this week.

And I believe the reason he is withdrawing the funds is because he sees the money as his and doesn’t want to share it.

He can withdraw money if he wishes but there will be a paper trail and your solicitor will ask for details going back to before you filed for divorce.

The court will judge whether his actions were to hide money or for a legitimate reason.

If there is not enough money in the other assets to compensate you for his withdrawals from the pension then you need very urgent legal advice.

There is sufficient other assets to compensate. I expect he will want at least 50% of other assets as well as the money he is taking from his pension. But I intend to ask it to be offset if legally that is allowed as the pension should be part of the overall pot and not his to withdraw to prevent sharing it.
I guess he could say he needed the funds prior to divorce but it could be argued that I also need those funds and I cannot access them.

He has only started trying to withdraw the funds after I filed for divorce.

I wonder who gave your stbx the idea that withdrawing pension after the divorce has been filed, means it will not be taken into consideration.

Both of you will have to fill form E and he will have to declare it, this includes bank statements, pension statements etc.

Do you have any evidence of his pension balance over the years?

I don’t have evidence of the current balances as he has hidden / removed from the house anything relating to his pensions. I have documentation from around 6 years ago showing balances and levels of contributions being made.

I doubt pensions can be hidden so easily.

Present that documentation to your solicitor / barriste.

Well it seems I am right about him trying to withdraw funds from pensions. He thinks it is fine for him to do this as he thinks the money belongs to him.
I spoke to a solicitor who said if I have concrete evidence that he is doing this I can apply to the court for an order which prevents him doing it. But if he does go ahead and do it, it has already done it, I can ask the court to offset the amount against other assets.
I think an offset would actually work better in my favour so I’m trying not to worry about it too much.