Advice needed on police pension entitlement.

I'm wanting some advice please on what I may be entitled to from my ex husbands pension. We have seperated in the last year due to his infedelity. We have been together for 15 years, married for 12years and have 2 children 3 and 10. Hes been in the force for 15 years.I am still in the family home with the children. I only work part time. Divorce hasn't been mentioned but he said he's happy to give me equity of the house if I leave his pension alone. Total equity in house about £40k. I saw his last CETV which said he would get 125k lump sum with about 14k a year I think. He has said if I go for his pension I'm only entitle to ?/60ths of it which he said would be about 20k. Absolutely baffled by it all. Am I best to sell the house and split profits 50/50 And go for pension or take equity in the house??? Any advice really appreciated as feel totally in the dark and feel like he's trying to pull a fast one. I'm sorry if similar posts have been written previously by other people

Get legal advice and an actuaries report on the pension, the children's need for a home means that you will be housed for the foreseeable future and his pension is worth a lot more than the equity in the house. I suspect he knows this so be prepared for him to become obstructive once he knows you aren't going to accept his suggestion you may have a long battle ahead, only you can decide if you are up for it but get all the information and good advice before you sign anything.

I think he needs to see a straight talking lawyer.

Where cohabitation runs seamlessly into marriage, the whole length of the relationship will be counted. It would seem that his police career and your marriage have run concurrently. Your contribution to the marriage is considered equal to his so, if you have no other pension, I would think a 50:50 split ogf his current pension pot would be what the courts expect to see.

As to housing, you have small children. A home for them is priority. It is hard to comment without more detail about incomes etc but it may be that you could remain in the house until say the youngest is 18 at which point it would be sold and the equity divided.

If you do have mortgage capacity, the question would be what lump sum you would require to be able to buy suitable property for you and the children.

Alternatively you could divide the equity now and rent.

To get a pension sharing order, you need a legally binding financial settlement. To get that you need to have reached Decree Nisi. The settlement can be done by consent if you agree - but it still has to be approved by a judge. What he seems to be proposing would simply not be approved.

Hadenoughnow

Thankyou I do have an NHS pension but nothing that would amount to much as I've been part time for the past ten years while I've brought the children up. What is the actuary and how much information does it provide?

You need to get the CEV (Cash Equivalent Value) of both pensions so you can work out what is in the joint pension pot.

Police pensions have always been considered particularly valuable because they can be taken earlier than normal retirement age. I am not sure if anything has changed so you would need to check the retirement date for the scheme.

Having said that, NHS pensions are also considered valuable because of the type of pensions they are.

Just looking at the raw CEV and working out how much of his pension you would need to bring the share to 50:50 would be a good start point.

An actuary can be expensive - potentially £1500+ depending on the complexity of the situation. They can be very useful in determining things like the right pension share to ensure equality of income on retirement for example. Also they are able to take account of things like disparity in ages and different types of pension where there are defined contribution schemes in the mix (not in your case). They can also look at how pension shares can be adjusted to take account of one party having more of the equity.

In your case the equity is very low so I would be inclined to treat pensions and property separately. Any offset of pension against equity would be pretty small. As I said, the housing and income needs of the children and parent with care will be a priority here. You will need to consider how his housing needs can be met - but this could be through renting.

Give the helpline a call if you need more assistance.

Hadenoughnow

Thankyou for all your information. It's been really useful. He's in a 1 bedrooms flat at the minute. Even though I advised him to get a house with a garden for the kids. I feel a bit more prepared now and know what to expect. Thankyou

Stick around there are always people willing to answer questions, there is the helpline to phone and a wealth of information in previous posts. Wiki was a sanity saver for me in the early days it doesn't replace proper legal advice but with a better idea of how the process works I was in a much better position to save on costs, the support and knowing that other people had come through similar situations and moved on was so reassuring and kept me positive on many occasions.