NHS Pension Value

[Sally909]

Just wondering if anyone can help here.

Basic situation: STBXH and I are in later stages of divorce process. Everything is pretty much agreed but we are still waiting on a value for his NHS pension which is really slowing things down.

I work in finance and have a significantly higher income than him. He's worked in the NHS in an office role at various levels for the last 15 years. I have only started paying in to a pension in the last 2 years and as a result haven't built up much.

Due to the income disparity we have agreed that he will keep the house and equity (house is about half paid and big increase in value since bought, so low mortgage) and that I will take our savings (about 20% of total assets) so I have a deposit for a new house, as I am currently renting. We're 50/50 with our three DC and I will be paying significant maintenance to provide a similar standard of living in both households.

We're all set to get this finalised, but have been waiting for his NHS pension value (or a cash equivalent value) that we can include in the figures. We could proceed without it, but I have no idea what this number could be. My earning potential should be higher, but this might be quite a big asset. He's pushing to continue without this and asking me to remove mine.

Could anyone share even an approximate value for this kind of pension? Or even how long you had to wait (we are 8 months and counting). I've done some searching and can't seem to find anything, and also don't know if this is the kind of thing that is quite a good pension at retirement, but given some low nominal value in these cases, and is therefore not that relevant.

Thanks!

If he logs into ESR and clicks on Go to MyESR portal, he can see a box on the right hand side called My Total Reward Statements. Clicking on the View My TRS button will take him to a page that currently gives approximate pension values for up to financial year 22-23.

I can't find where it says that these are approximate and shouldn't be used for divorce calculations but I've seen it in there somewhere! But meanwhile you should be able to get a rough idea of how much his pension is currently worth (depending on lump sums, scheme he's in (2008 or 2015) etc.)

Following with interest. My STBXH has a large public sector pension built up over 25 years whereas I have minimal pension and I have credit card debt. But I earn 3 x what he does. I really don't want to lose my home and hoping his pension is large enough to be a negotiating tactic - e.g. leave the hoise alone and ill leave your pension alone

I found a calculation for teacher pension which is average salary x years divided by 80 if on final salary scheme.

You work in finance so probably have a better grip of how on earth they work out the value of pensions. I definitely think you should wait though. You don't say what you earn but walking away with only 20% of assets seems generous to me, his pension could change things considerably? Are the DC going to be 5050?

His pension could be more of an asset than the house equity ! Especially as it’s defined benefit whereas yours will be defined contribution

you should understand what this is before agreeing the split of equity as you could be really short changing yourself

Unless you earn £££££ then normally neither parent pays child maintenance on a 50:50 split. You might let him have the child benefit though. Especially as you’re probably over the threshold

Definitely wait. Make sure you get everything you are entitled to, the value of his NHS pension could be quite substantial.

I was told when I asked for mine that it would be 12 months - this was a few years ago.
I no longer needed it in the end as ex died so no idea how long it would have taken x

Hi I was a nurse for the NHS and paid into NHS pension for 21 full time years. To be honest they don't value it very high when they do a CETV. Mine was valued at £300,000, but it is a final salary pension so it is really difficult to understand how much they will actually pay out in the end. Don't be surprised if its lower than you thought it would be.

Hi, this is very useful for me as just applied to NHS pensions for CETV and told over 3 months wait! Really want to get it settled ASAP.
@finallydivorced when was your figure given please? I may use it to work out mine as a nurse paying in for years.
OP - definitely see if you can get any similar values for an idea, I had no idea mine would be worth that much!!

@Bridgewhat24 mine took about 15 weeks in the end and I was constantly emailing to chase it up. X

For a rough ball park figure for the NHS pension which is a defined benefit scheme and works on a 54th of your salary for each year of employment. So, take the annual salary, multiply it by the number of years employed. Take that answer and divide by 54. The answer will give a rough idea to the pension they would get it they could retire now. To convert to a lump sum which is what you are after, multiply the answer above by 20.
It won't be exact, but you will get a rough ball park figure (+/- 10%) to help you do some rough calculations whilst you wait for the official value to come through. My soon to be ex's took approx 8 months before the official CETV was provided

The bit the CETV does not acknowledge is that when retired, the NHS pension, being a defined benefit scheme, is index linked, so will increase with inflation each year. In a standard defined contribution pension, which, the majority of pensions are outside the public sector, you may well have the same CETV value, but you will get a reduced pension offered if you want the value to increase each year in line with inflation. This is why a pension actuary is usually recommended with larger pension values in Divorces. A pension actuary is used to iron out these hidden benefits and provide an accurate assessment of each pension value ... Albeit for a fee of a couple of thousand pounds to add to your divorce costs on top of the solicitors costs.

I requested. CETV last autumn from the NHS and had it within a couple of months. This was when there were potentially still delays with the McCloud judgement.

Has he definitely requested it? Did he send his request recorded delivery? NHSBSA didn't seem to be that slow of late.

A way to push forward might be to agree a pension split without the figure, so say 40% of his goes to you. I've seen people saying there's big delays currently for this, but I would be wanting to see he actual did apply when he said he did.

Why have you agreed significant maintenance if you're going 50:50 with the kids??

You seem to be screwing yourself over here!

You could use the last valuation figure he has as a rough guide and then make the application explaining to the court that you don't want to delay and here is the approximate position.