Divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version
If you get divorced or dissolve a civil partnership, the Court will take your the value of your pension into account when determining any settlement.
 
You and your ex-spouse or partner will each need to tell the Court the value of your pension pot(s) and/or the value of the benefits you have built up. You don’t have an automatic right to know the value of your ex-spouse’s or partner’s benefits, and vice versa but you can each decide to tell each other.
 
If you live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, the value of your pension benefits at the date of divorce or dissolution of the civil partnership is counted.
 
If you live in Scotland, the increase in the value of your pension benefits over the course of the marriage or civil partnership is counted. This means that pensions should be valued at the date of separation.
 
When you go to Court, you and your ex-spouse or partner can decide how any pension benefits are split:
 
  • Pension sharing – the pension is split at the time of divorce or dissolution. You each receive a separate pension pot and can continue to build pension benefits for the future
  • Pension offsetting – you each keep your own pension benefits but adjust the proportion of other assets to take account of the value of the pension benefits. For example, you could keep your pension, and your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner could get a larger share of the value of the house.
  • Pension earmarking – when one person’s pension starts to be paid, part of it will be paid to the other person.
 
You may wish to get legal advice from your solicitor on how to deal with your LGPS benefits during a divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership.
 
 

What information will I need? 

 
You will need specific information about your LGPS benefits as part of the proceedings for a divorce, judicial separation or nullity of marriage, or for dissolution, separation or nullity of a civil partnership.
 
You or your solicitor should contact us for this information. We will supply an estimate of the cash equivalent value of your pension rights. The Court will take this value into account in your settlement. In Scotland, only the pension rights built up during your marriage or civil partnership are taken into account.
 
You usually get one free CEV estimate each year. Any other costs for supplying information or complying with a Court Order will be recovered from you and/or your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner in accordance with the Fund's charging policy:
 
​
​All correspondence received by the Fund in connection with divorce or dissolution proceedings will be acknowledged in writing. If no acknowledgement is received, you should contact us to ensure that your correspondence has been received.
 
The Court may offset the value of your pension rights against your other assets in the divorce/dissolution settlement or it may issue a Pension Sharing Order (qualifying agreements in Scotland) or an Earmarking Order against your pension.
 
 

What happens to my LGPS pension after a divorce?

 
After your divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership is completed:
 
  • your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner will no longer be entitled to a partner’s pension if you die before them
  • if you told us that you would like your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner to receive some or all of any death grant, this will remain in place unless you change it. You can change it by completing a new expression of wish form.
  • any children’s pensions that are payable after you die are not affected by your divorce or dissolution.