posted 29th September 2023
Can an Ex-Spouse Claim a Share of Your Pension After Divorce?
Yes, and this is the part that surprises people: it can happen years after the divorce is finalised.
The divorce itself does not sever your financial ties. Only a financial order does. Without one, either party can bring a claim against the other's pension, savings or property long after the marriage has ended.
Why the divorce alone is not enough
Ending the marriage and dividing the finances are two separate processes. The Final Order of divorce deals with the first. It does nothing about the second.
So a couple who divorced amicably and never got a financial order remain financially exposed to each other indefinitely. If one of them builds up a pension over the following ten years, the other may still be able to make a claim against it.
Attitudes change, particularly when a new partner arrives. An understanding reached at the time of the separation is not protection.
How pensions are actually divided
Where the pension is being shared, this is done through a pension sharing order, which forms part of the consent order.
A percentage of the pension's value transfers from one party's scheme into a pension in the other's own name. From that point the two pensions are entirely separate. Each party decides when and how to draw theirs, and neither has any claim on the other.
It applies to workplace and private schemes alike.
What decides the percentage
- How long the marriage lasted
- The financial needs of each party
- The value of the pension or pensions
- The ages of both parties, and how close each is to retirement
Non-financial contributions count here too. Time spent raising children or running the home is not treated as contributing less.
What actually stops a future claim
A consent order approved by the court, containing a clean break.
That is what ends the ability of either party to make further claims against the other. Nothing else does it — not the divorce, not an agreement between you, not the passage of time.
If you are divorced and never obtained a financial order, that door is still open in both directions.
We negotiate the settlement and draw up the consent order as part of the process. Get in touch for a free initial consultation.
