Divorce and pension advice

[Mylifestartstoday]

I am divorcing my husband of 20 years due to his affair. He has moved to his dads and I am currently in the marital home, which is up for sale.
I haven’t worked for 16 years, initially due to both of us deciding I should be a SAHM, and then around 6 years ago I developed a chronic illness and can’t work, so he has been the only breadwinner for that whole time.
There is around £90k equity in the house. He has proposed I take that if I don’t claim on his pension. We have 2 children 16 and 14, who will live with me. He hasn’t in the last 3 months seen them alone or asked to see them or take them out so they won’t be staying overnight.
I can’t get social housing because I will have the equity. I can’t rent because I will be claiming universal credit. My best option is a shared ownership, but the ones coming up here want you to own 40% so I would need £110k to purchase the shared bit (I won’t get a mortgage because I’m on benefits).
He is 54, I don’t want to leave him with nothing, but I have to ensure myself and the children are housed. I do have a solicitor, but I wondered if anyone had an opinion as to whether the proposal sounds fair? This way we wouldn’t need to do a disclosure, which would save money (I can’t afford legal fees to pile up), but I also need to make sure we are secure. Thanks in advance

You need to know how much his pension is before you even give it any thought.

Ask him for his CETV

It’s worth around £300k, that’s his main one, but he has a few smaller ones which I don’t know the value of

He can jog on!! You should be getting around 50% of total equity including his pension!

I just wonder how much of his pension I would be entitled to?
I thought it was fair, but then I thought that actually I’m entitled to half the equity anyway (if not more because I’ll be housing the children) so maybe I need to look into it? His brother is a financial advisor so if he’s been advising him to offer me that, then I know I may be better off with pension claim too

Sounds like house and pension equity = £400k, you are housing the DC and have £0 earning potential...

I suspect you would be awarded more than 50%

Listen to what your solicitor says. They are much better placed to advise you than random strangers on the internet.

Of course, but a solicitor charges me every time she takes a breath, I just wondered if there was a formula or something. He still has earning potential whereas I don’t. I don’t want to leave him with nothing, but neither do I want to be shortchanged

The general rule in a long marriage is that starting point is 50:50 of assets.

No, there is no formula. There is a list of factors the courts have to consider set out in the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973:

(a) the income, earning capacity, property and other financial resources which each of the parties to the marriage has or is likely to have in the foreseeable future, including in the case of earning capacity any increase in that capacity which it would in the opinion of the court be reasonable to expect a party to the marriage to take steps to acquire;

(b) the financial needs, obligations and responsibilities which each of the parties to the marriage has or is likely to have in the foreseeable future;

(c) the standard of living enjoyed by the family before the breakdown of the marriage;

(d) the age of each party to the marriage and the duration of the marriage;

(e) any physical or mental disability of either of the parties to the marriage;

(f) the contributions which each of the parties has made or is likely in the foreseeable future to make to the welfare of the family, including any contribution by looking after the home or caring for the family;

(g) the conduct of each of the parties, if that conduct is such that it would in the opinion of the court be inequitable to disregard it;

(h) in the case of proceedings for divorce or nullity of marriage, the value to each of the parties to the marriage of any benefit which, by reason of the dissolution or annulment of the marriage, that party will lose the chance of acquiring.

The goal is to achieve a fair split. That may mean you are entitled to 50% but it could be more or less than that.

Thanks for that, I’ve spoken to the pensions advice service and my pension provider. Thanks for the advice