Divorce and your LGPS pension

If you divorce or dissolve a civil partnership, your LGPS benefits may be considered as part of the financial settlement. This does not automatically mean that your pension will be divided. The outcome will depend on your circumstances and any agreement or court order.

The pension team can provide a value of your LGPS benefits for the divorce proceedings – contact us. You may be charged for some information or calculations, particularly if further figures are requested, or a court order has to be put into effect, but we will let you know this before we do any work.

How your pension could be treated

Pension sharing

A court order gives your former spouse or civil partner a share of the value of your pension as at a specific date. Your LGPS benefits are then reduced by a pension debit, and your former partner then receives pension benefits in their own right. What remains of your LGPS pension after the debit has been implemented is yours.

Pension offsetting

You keep your whole pension, but the value is taken into account when other shared assets, such as the house, are divided. There is no action required by the pensions team as your full LGPS pension will stay intact and belong to you.

Pension attachment or earmarking: a court order directs that a portion of a future pension payment, lump sum or death grant is paid to your former spouse or civil partner once it is in payment. Unlike pension sharing, this does not give them a separate pension at the time of divorce.

Pension attachment/earmarking 

Relatively uncommon these days as most couples prefer the “clean break” of a pension sharing order or offsetting.

How a pension sharing order works:

If you are an active member (currently paying into the LGPS)

Pension Services can calculate the cash equivalent value (sometimes called a CETV or CEV) of the benefits you have built up for use in the divorce proceedings.

If a pension sharing order is made by the court, the benefits you have built up as at the date the order takes effect will be reduced by a 'pension debit'. The debit is kept entirely separate from your own benefits and is paid to your ex-partner independently when they reach retirement age.

Once the pension sharing order has been implemented, you will continue paying into the LGPS and build up further pension (for yourself) after that date. 

If you are a deferred member (you have left the LGPS but have not yet taken your pension)

Pension Services can calculate the cash equivalent value of your deferred benefits for the divorce proceedings.

If a pension sharing order is made, your deferred pension and any lump sum will be reduced by a pension debit. Your remaining benefits will stay in the LGPS, increase in line with the scheme rules and become payable under the normal rules. The debit is kept entirely separate from your own benefits and is paid to your ex-partner independently when they reach retirement age.

If you later rejoin the LGPS or transfer eligible benefits, you should tell the pension fund about the pension sharing order.

If you are a pensioner (already receiving your pension)

Your LGPS pension can still be included in a divorce settlement after it has started to be paid. 

If a pension sharing order is made, the pension you receive will be reduced by a pension debit. The reduction will apply once the order has taken effect and been implemented. 

Death benefits and your expression of wish

After your divorce or dissolution is complete, your former spouse or civil partner will no longer qualify for an LGPS partner’s pension. Any eligible children’s pensions are not affected.

If you previously named your former spouse or civil partner to receive a death grant, that expression of wish will usually remain in place until you change it. You should review your nomination and submit a new expression of wish if needed. The pension fund has discretion over who receives a death grant.