Divorce - Pension Credit Member

If you and your spouse or civil partner have legally ended your relationship, the court will consider any relevant pension credit you should be awarded. There are two main provisions which allow you to receive pension credits following dissolution of your marriage or civil partnership: these are ‘Earmarking’ and ‘Pension Sharing’ Orders.

Where an Earmarking Order is made, the agreed share of your former spouse or civil partner’s benefits is redirected to you. If a Pension Sharing Order is made, you’ll be awarded a credit in the Scheme and become a Pension Credit Member (PCM). You’ll receive a credit based on the highest value available.

Once the credit has been awarded, any action your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner takes regarding making a choice about their retirement benefits, due to being affected by the Transitional Protection changes, will not affect you or your own pension.

What if my former spouse or partner was a tapered member?

Due to the Transitional Protection changes, where your former spouse or partner was a tapered protection member, they had ‘mixed’ service in both the final salary and career average schemes during the remedy period (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2022). This means we’ll need to recalculate your Pension Credit entitlement as the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) used to calculate this was based on your former partner’s ‘mixed’ service and this is no longer permitted.

While you’ll still be eligible for the same percentage of your ex-partner’s benefits, these calculations could result in either an increase or a decrease to your overall pension credit value.

We’ll recalculate your pension credit in the remedy period under both the final salary and career average scheme and notify you of your new entitlement. Please note: Your future pension credit benefits will be based on the higher of these values.

Last Updated: 24/10/2024 10:30

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