divorced spouse

sash79

wonder if anyone could advise...

my dad served 22 yrs in the army and was married to my mum, they divorced approx 9 years ago. my mum is struggling financially so i was wondering if she could claim off my dad's army pension ??

i rang the generic number on the army website for pension but they advised it depends what was said in the divorce. my mum said her solicitor at the time asked if she wanted to sort it out but my mum said no can she leave that for another time and the solicitor said she could, so they just simply went through i divorce, noting outlined in the divorce settlement regarding his pension.

so my query is can she claim? does my mum have to meet a certain age before she can claim ?, and if she ca claim who do we contact ?

susannicola

did your mum accept anything financial e.g. house or money that is sometimes done and the other person keeps the pension, that happened with my son his wife kept the house he kept his pension, he also had 22 years service

Alias_Omega

More information regarding the pension can be found here -

http://www.veterans-uk.info/

Hope this helps,

Alias

Mark148

Your Mum may be able to claim but it depends on the financial terms that were agreed during the divorce.

If your Mum remarried after the divorce then she will not be entitled to any element of your Dads pension.

If entitled she would receive a percentage based on how long they were together i.e for every year together during service she would receive 1/2 qualifying year and your dad the other 1/2 qualifying year. If together 20 years during married service your mother should be entitled to 10/37ths and your father 12/37ths of his 22 year pension pot.

Your Mother would ONLY receive this entitlement when she reaches state pension age unless your Dad was to come to some other form of arrangement to settle her entitlement.

I hope this helps.

sash79

thanks everyone...

no my mum never has remarried. there was no house or anything they had rented, so nothing exchanged financially.

i suspected that she wouldn't be able to claim until she reached state pension age .

thanks again everyone

Mark148

Don't give up.............It sounds like your mother is entitled so even though she would not receive your fathers pension until she reaches pension age she should still put a claim in NOW

Why

Because even though your mother would not get anything yet, the money that she would have got would still be deducted from your Dads monthly pension and put back into the State pot.

If your Dad was getting a pension of £400 per month your Mum would be entitled to approximately £182 per month, £2184 per annum. This is what would be deducted from his monthly pension and go back to the state. When your Mum was pensionable age she would then be in receipt of.

Remember that once your Dad reaches 55 years of age then his pension will increase by as much as 75% approximately if he was serving at age 18. Your Mum would be entitled to this as well.

A great bargaining tool if you know what I mean. Your Mum served her time with your Dad so she should receive her just entitlements, just like your Dad.

I hope this helps