Pension sharing on divorce

[hurrahfordivorce]

Hi, not sure if the right place to post. NC for this.

I'm currently in the middle of sorting out the finances before the decree absolute can be granted.

I've got my CETV and this is £35,000. I worked full time then part time over the space of the 7 years I had the pension.

My stbexh worked full time with the same pension provider and has a CETV of £120,000.

We have no other assets. Don't own our homes. 2 young children who live with me (don't know if that matters).

How does pension sharing normally work?

He has said he will not give me a single penny of his pension.

Do you have a pension sharing order from a court?

No. We are in the data gathering stage so CETVs were requested and about to move forward from there as now arrived.

How many years part time did you do? How old are the children?

I am no expert the the solution that would seem reasonable to me is that he tops up your pension so you have the equivalent of the full 7 years ft. That compensates for the time you took out to presumably look after the children.

I don’t have much experience with divorce but in the couple of cases i have known, pensions have only been shared if it’s been a long marriage and one party has reduced their work to enable the other’s. Usually older too, where there is no opportunity to build a separate one. If your kids are young you still have years to build your pension up.

Children are 10 and 8 and I also have another younger child but my stbexh is not his dad.
I worked ft for less than 3 years of that time. I went part time after having my first child and have not gone back full time since.

I'm mid 40s.

What does your solicitor say?

Solicitor doesn't respond to emails so no idea what he thinks hence asking here. Usually they update me on the morning of court appearances

Not a professional opinion only what I've seen happen via work where in most cases one was sahp or had no pension

Pension was worked out for duration of the marriage then starting point was 50%.

I.e the 120000 is from working 20yrs. So £6000 a year....10yrs of that was in a marriage so that's £60000 then 50% of that is £30,000 to be applied for. In the case this is based on he offered £10,000 cash with no claim to the pension. She agreed, job done.

In other cases I've seen the £30000 pension granted....

Guess other factors will come into play ie split of assets held, house etc.

Of course he can then go for your pension just to be annoying but yours isn't worth as much as his.

There are no other assets to split. Only pensions. He's had that pension 12 years, we were married and together for 5 years.

5 years together does not count as a long marriage which is normally 8-10 years plus. Only in a long marriage is there an expectation of 50:50

But given the differential in tvs I would expect you to be awarded some of his pension

You could end up with expensive Court fees if he’s going to be a twat about it which is not good if there are no other assets

Take some legal advice. And try mediation

I have legal aid for this.
Thank you.

Where are you OP? Rules are different in scotland compared to England and Wales. In Scotland it’s only the benefits accrued during the marriage that are split whereas in E&W the whole lot is split.

I'm in England.

Apologies, I should have written a better OP!

My friend had a pension accrued for 15 years before marriage and one year in marriage. So 16 years. Judge took the one year into consideration which was cancelled out by the other persons pension. So basically got none. This was the gist of it. She wanted half of it.

Solicitor doesn't respond to emails so no idea what he thinks hence asking here
Your solicitor isn't really doing their job, this is exactly the kind of issue they should be helping you understand!

Unless there is a plan in place for you to go discuss this with solicitor, once the info is gathered, I think you should be concerned this solicitor won't effectively protect your interests - they should at least respond saying when they plan to provide the info you've asked for.

Does it have any bearing that it's been 5 years since the decree nisi was granted? Stbexh has messed about delaying things and refusing to provide information and taking me to court over contact with the children so this process has been delayed numerous times as the children's issues have taken priority.

Unless one of the family law experts on here posts, you’re best bet is to pin your solicitor down to discuss this. I don’t think you just got to court and them to decide - you have to make a proposal. I don’t remember for sure as my ex accepted my proposal (as it was far less overall than a court would have awarded!(

If I were him, I’d argue:

• that by going part time mid 30s you’d already reached a point in your career where you were established and that going part time didn’t have a long term impact on your future earning potential
• that your choice to remain part time because of your third child (not his) was nothing to do him
• so I was only prepared to pension share for the period of you being part time during the marriage

But if I were you, I’d be arguing hard that my long term earnings were impacted by the fact that you continue to have majority responsibility for the children. But if I were him, I’d be pushing hard that your 3rd child was the issue on that..

Don’t mess about with this - talk to your solicitor.

Thank you. I'll contact him to see what's what now the CETV values are in.
My stbexh is a nasty piece of work and has fought this from the start.
I never Evie ted anything and didn't know I might be entitled to some of his pension so if I do get anything it will be a nice bonus.

In the meantime I've asked for this to be moved to the legal board of HQ deem it more appropriate.
Thanks to all that have taken the time to reply. I've been waiting for this divorce for over 5 years and will be glad when it's finalised!

I would say 8 years with a child is not counted as a short marriage. The only assets here are pensions you can both draw at age 57 year old so basically a divorce with no immediate cash of any kind thus it is not worth either side spending too much on lawyers. I think pension sharing orders can be quite expensive to get £2k?
Every £100k CETV tends to generat about £5000 a year pension at age 65 before tax is taken off at source so although £120k looks like a large amount of money it is not really cash in the usual sense. So you could go for a pension sharing order on the £85k CETV difference between you perhaps or he might choose to get a family member to buy out your claim to that - my guess is at your kinds of ages the CETV is about in cash terms a quarter so £85k divided by 4 is about £21,250. if you think he won't pay spousal maintenance for the future may be consider asking for one lump sum now (if he has famly who can help raise it) for a clean break divorce with no spousal claims for the future.

I am totally guessing here but if your latest child is not with him he may be cross ahbout that and resist every penny claimed. (Next time never give up full time work for any man or baby - never worth it).

He is representing himself, I will have representation as have legal aid. We were married and together for just over 5 years but as the divorce is not yet finalised then I guess technically we are still married so that would be 11 years married.

A man might not be worth giving up ft work for but my children certainly are!

He now has two other children with another woman.

If the pensions are the only assets it is likely they will have to be split. Assuming you are entitled to more than £35k of the £155k total, the way this would normally work is that a percentage of your husband's pension fund would be transferred to you, either into your existing pension or into a new pension you set up for the purpose. You may have to use a financial adviser to arrange the transfer.

As for how much, if any, of your husband's pension you would get, your solicitor is best placed to answer that question.

Thank you. I know nothing about all this (obviously!) My stbexh has claimed it was my choice and against his wishes that I worked part time after having the kids (total rubbish, it was a joint discussion) and therefore because I chose to be lazy I shouldn't get a penny of his pension. He has secreted thousands into a mystery account and refuses to explain it and has said he won't have to explain it to anyone as it's no one's business. The account isn't in his name so he has refused to provide statements for it.

If he controls the account he must disclose it. If he does not disclose it before the settlement it potentially allows you to have the settlement changed at a later date when you have proof that it is his money.