Divorce - Pension

Arsenal2019

Hello

I am going through a divorce currently and I am in the process of obtaining a cash equivalent transfer form to see how much my pension is worth & to send to the other parties solicitor. I work within the police and have been in the force a couple of years. However, I was only paying into the pension for the first two years of my service and opted out thereafter.

My relationship - the total length of time before separating with my wife was just under 10 years.  We were living together as a married couple’ for 11 months and although still technically married now (on paper and won’t be finalised for another good few months),  we are not living together and have split up. We had lived together for 5 years and have 0 children.

I started paying into the pension 5 years ago when I started the job, but stopped paying after 2 as previously stated and haven’t contributed since.

Whilst waiting for this cash equivalent transfer form, I would like to know if anyone can help me. 

Will my ex wife be entitled to any of my pension?  I have no idea what figure I will be looking at.

If so, what amount / percentage.

THANK YOUUU

Keep_pedalling

Without knowing what other assets you and she have it’s impossible to say. If she has her own pension provision it is unlikely that she will get a share of yours seeing it will be of a very low value.

On the subject of your police pension scheme, you are stark raving bonkers to opt out of such a gold plated pension scheme, please re-enroll ASAP otherwise your older self will never forgive you. 

Arsenal2019

She doesn’t have a pension of her own and we have no other assets other than the house which is going to be split 50/50

We are both still amicable, and talk on occasions but accept the relationship is over. 

We are trying to keep the costs down with solicitors and even tho we have one, only trying to use one for the initial consultation, a few hours here and there snd to finalise the consent order. 

When the figure comes through the post, would me and her be able to figure out how much it’s worth and come to some sort of agreement between ourselves (and agree this in the consent order & clean break) or would the solicitors / courts decide who will get what if any.

also, I am so relieved I only paid 2 years into the pension now. When all this is finalised I will be back in it

Silvertabby

The value of the pension is just another marital asset.  As it will be such a tiny amount (in pension speak) it would make much more sense for your wife to receive an equivalent amount from another asset.

And, yes, your very first job after all this has been finalised must be to opt back into the pension scheme!

MEM62

Arsenal2019 said:

also, I am so relieved I only paid 2 years into the pension now. When all this is finalised I will be back in it

I assume that you have made that statement on the basis that, as a result, your ex-wife will get less.  The thing is so do you.  If the split is 50/50 you still benefit from the pension equally so by reducing what she gets from it you reduce what you get from it.  You could have had 50% of something worthwhile but now have 50% of not a lot.         

Arsenal2019

Let’s say the pension pot is worth 5k…. Would
it be fair to say she gets a lump sum of 2.5k now, whether they be paid in cash or deducted from my 50% of the house.?

tacpot12

Arsenal2019 said:

Let’s say the pension pot is worth 5k…. Would
it be fair to say she gets a lump sum of 2.5k now, whether they be paid in cash or deducted from my 50% of the house.?

Yes, that's exactly how it would work.Deducting it from your 50% of the house is probably easiest way to think about this. As others have said you should restart your pension membership as soon as the financial settlement is concluded. 

Arsenal2019

Also, what would happen if we both have debts such as credit card debts? For example, my cc debt is bigger than hers.. would that be taken into consideration because the debts were accumulated during the relationship!?

RAS

Quite possibly. Depends what if the debt was accrued during the relationship buying goods for mutual benefit, or a car you are now taking.

Keep_pedalling

Arsenal2019 said:

Let’s say the pension pot is worth 5k…. Would
it be fair to say she gets a lump sum of 2.5k now, whether they be paid in cash or deducted from my 50% of the house.?

Yes you could agree to give her a greater share of the house and none of your pension, but with defined benefit pensions it is not as simple as basing it on the CEV value as the pension split may mean she gets payed a portion of your pension at retirement age which is likely to be more valuable than the CEV value.

Arsenal2019

Sorry what do you mean?

we’ve had the discussion and we want it be done with it all done and dealt with now,& not to have anything to do with it in 30 years time