Pension Sharing Order

[Sunday Morning]

I have a Pension Sharing Order on a Final Salary Pension I had with a company that closed in 2007.

The financial settlement at the time of my divorce included giving my ex 50% of all my pensions which was converted into 58% of the final salary pension which, at the time, represented a value equivalent to 50% of the CETVs of the pensions I had at the time.

The divorce was complete in 2012. For whatever reason it appears my pension was never given the pension sharing order.

Now the CETV is around two and a half times what it was in 2012. As I am able to take 25% of my pension tax free and need to do so to pay long outstanding debts, To do this I need to move the pension.and need to get this resolved to be able to facilitate it first. When the details such as we had were passed over to the pension administrators, they declared the detail was not sufficient enough to allow them to proceed with the PSO.

As a result I have many questions...

Do we need to get the court to re submit the PSO with the complete information required?

How do the actuaries work out the split? As the pension is subject to growth guarantees in the future, is there a danger the CETV applied to the pension could be reduced accordingly becasue the calculation of what was required to account for future earnings reduces as a result of her share being taken out?

The pension will charge around £2k for the admin involved. Does this mean the actual split of the pension is not as straighforward as applying the respective percentager to the CETV. If not, which of us would likely get the benefit?

As it is some years until my ex can access her 25%, she is open to the idea of setting aside the current pension sharing order (if possible) and negotiating a lower percentage of the CETV as pension together with a lumop sum of cash? Does this sound feasible? Would it be possible to move some of the pension to another pension pot that we then get a PSO for as 100% in her favour?

I know this is a lot of questions! . If anyone can help it would be much appreciated!

[SandraF]

Hi Sunday morning, normally the solicitors/lawyers involved in this case, will write to the pension administrators giving them the draft of the pension Annexe to view before it is posted to the courts. The reason for this, is to avoid the situation you are in now, i.e. that the details on the form are incorrect that the pension department are unable to implement it.

You can do the following, write to the court advising that the details on the pension form are not correct, (check the consent order as well) and the pension form will need to be re-sealed by the court. This will enable the pension dept to be able to implement the PSO. good luck

[Sunday Morning]

Hi Sunday morning, normally the solicitors/lawyers involved in this case, will write to the pension administrators giving them the draft of the pension Annexe to view before it is posted to the courts. The reason for this, is to avoid the situation you are in now, i.e. that the details on the form are incorrect that the pension department are unable to implement it.

You can do the following, write to the court advising that the details on the pension form are not correct, (check the consent order as well) and the pension form will need to be re-sealed by the court. This will enable the pension dept to be able to implement the PSO. good luck

Thanks Sandra. Do you know if the fact that the CETV has risen significantly in the six years that have elapsed since the PSO was established would make any difference to how it was divided up now?

[SandraF]

No, it would not unless he/she reapply for reconsideration of the PSO, and he/she would need to give exceptional reasons why the first Order should be discharged. Good luck

[Sunday Morning]

Thanks again Sandra. Seems unlikely she would complain! Because the pension sharing order has not been enacted, she has been the only one to benefit. If her pension had been taken out at the time, I doubt if there is any other pension fund she would have moved it to at the time that would have grown so fast because the guarantees that exist with my pension would not have applied to one she set up to take her share of the money.

Although I don't myself benefit or lose out if the split is the same, it does seem odd that she is still entitled to 58% of the growth in the CETV that has occured since the divorce. For my part, the fact the PSO hasbn't been actioned all this time (which to be honest i wasn't aware of until last year) has meant that I have been unable to secure access to my 25% tax free, money I have needed to pay off debts. This may shortly come to cost me my jobs as I had promised my work I could satisfy CCJs currently against me by securing this money, yet the impasse over the PSO not being enacted has prevented me from doing so, and my company's patience has finally run out