Financial settlement without pension

[Turnleftnow]

Name changed bc possibly outing.

we are divorcing. I work for the civil service and due to a failure of the provider who administer our pensions I have no access to any information about my pension (this failure is public knowledge, and severe - people who have retired are not getting paid their pension, people like me can’t access their records). I requested my CEV months ago. I was told there is no anticipated date for when they will be able to provide it. Their only focus right now is on paying people their pensions. Call times are 4 plus hours and they don’t answer queries submitted electronically.

My husband has a good pension. And has disclosed. He is keen to divorce and is happy we both keep our own pensions. I think they might be about the same and am also keen to complete this process and move on.

but I wonder if a financial consent order where we exclude pensions would be accepted by the courts?

together 25 years, married 15.

If agree and can answer questions if asked then most likely would be approved.

if it’s contested and you wa t a court to agree then it absolutely couldn’t without it

Thanks. We are both agreeing now, but that might change. Probably has to play out as I have no control over getting this document!

Yes this happened to me - 12 year marriage, I did have a CETV from my NHS pension and it was substantially more than ex-H had in his. I was only 34 when we divorced so we agreed to keep our respective pensions as we had a lot of working life to make our own pension provisions. Financial order was signed off with no question on this, there were other questions around the house, but not a bean on the pensions, despite me have three times as much.

One of my conditions of divorce(going through it now) is that he doesn’t get a touch of my pension. I do by want anything to do with his. I have heard that they can come after you after divorce for pension but I don’t know how true that is.

Not if there is a clean break consent order.

That’s interesting @Eng when you say other questions about the house, was that from the judge after you submitted the financial order?

Yes it was after we submitted it, we were going for 50/50 split (this was in 2014) and the judge asked whether would consider a house split that was more in my favour because we had one child. However, I didn't need this financially and I was in a better position than my ex, plus I had ended the marriage, so although I could have done, it didn't seem morally the right thing to do. The house would be sold anyway and then split 50/50, we had contributed 50/50.

In retrospect, I think I just didn't fit the narrative by being able to manage just fine as a woman with a child (we had a child maintenance arrangement). I did do more of the child care, but I was happy this was best for DD. Once I justified that, it was signed off.

my understanding is you can submit a consent order where you both keep your own pensions as long as the judge is satisfied it’s fair. The court usually wants the D81 to include pension values (CETVs), so if yours can’t be produced right now I’d explain that clearly and attach proof you requested it + any written response about delays.
One option people use when a CETV is delayed is to settle everything else on a clean break but leave pension claims adjourned (so you can deal with pensions once the valuation finally arrives). Might be worth a fixed-fee solicitor check before filing, because pensions can be the biggest asset after the house."