What happens if I divorce?

If you or your solicitor require a CEV of your pension benefits, please complete the Cash Equivalent Value (CEV) for divorce request form (PDF, 98 KB)(opens new window).

We will calculate how much your benefits are worth and provide you with a CEV for divorce purposes. The Court will take this value into account in your settlement. 

There are strict time limits for sorting out pension arrangements during a divorce or dissolution. We will aim to provide you with this information within 15 working days of receiving your request form, however, this may be longer if we have to ask for further information from your employer.

You do not have the automatic right to know the value of your ex-spouses or partner's benefits, and vice versa but you can each decide to tell each other.

When you go to Court, you and your ex-spouse or partner can decide how any pension benefits are split. There are usually three options to choose from:

• Pension sharing - the pension is split at the time of divorce or dissolution so that 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 - arranging that when one person's pension benefits start to be drawn down, part of them will be paid to the other person

If the Court issues a Pension Sharing Order part of your benefits will be transferred to your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner.

Your pension and any lump sum will be reduced by the amount allocated to your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner at the point of divorce/dissolution.

The amount of the Pension Debit will be increased in line with the rise in the cost of living between the date it was first calculated and the date your benefits are paid. When your benefits are paid, the revalued amount of the Pension Debit will be deducted from your retirement benefits and will be adjusted if your benefits are paid before or after your Normal Pension Age.

Your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner will hold a pension benefit in their own right and they will keep that share even if your or their circumstances change.

We do not charge an administration fee for this service.

If you get divorced and your ex-spouse has built up pension benefits in the LGPS you could be awarded a share of those benefits if a pension sharing order is issued by the Court,

When the pension sharing order is implemented you will be given the choice of having a 'pension credit' held with us or having your share transferred to another appropriate pension scheme. If you fail to make a decision within the specified timescale you will be awarded a pension credit in the LGPS automatically.

If you are awarded a pension credit in the LGPS the benefits awarded to you are personal benefits, they are held in your own right and are completely separate to those of your ex-spouse. There is no provision for a partner's pension to be paid if you were to re-marry and die before the new spouse, nor will any children's pensions be payable upon your death. Children's pensions remain "attached" in full to your ex-spouse's benefits in the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner will cease to be entitled to a spouse's or civil partner's pension should you die before them.

Any children's pension paid to an eligible child in the event of your death will not be affected by your divorce or dissolution.

If you have said that you would like your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner to receive any lump sum death grant payable on your death, they will still be shown on your My Wiltshire Pension (opens new window) account unless you change it.

If your LGPS benefits are subject to a Pension Sharing Order and you remarry, enter into a new civil partnership or into a cohabiting partnership, any spouse's pension, civil partner's pension or eligible cohabiting partner's pension payable following your death will also be reduced.

If you remarry or enter into a new civil partnership and then divorce or dissolve your civil partnership again, your remaining pension rights can be subject to further division, although a Pension Sharing Order cannot be issued if an Earmarking Order has already been issued against your LGPS pension rights. Similarly, an Earmarking Order cannot be issued if your pension benefits are already subject to a Pension Sharing Order in respect of the marriage/civil partnership.