If you are going through a divorce or dissolution of a marriage or civil partnership, the value of your pension benefits will be taken into account by the court when finalising any settlement. You and your ex-spouse or partner will each need to inform the court of the value of the benefits you have built up.
Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) will calculate how much your benefits are worth and provide you with a cash equivalent transfer valuation (CETV) for divorce purposes.
Who can request a CETV?
- You
- Your solicitor (with your authorisation)
- The court (in special circumstances)
Please note that your husband, wife, partner or their solicitor cannot request a valuation on your behalf.
There are strict time limits for sorting out pension arrangements during a divorce or dissolution. If you or your solicitor needs information please complete the Matrimonial proceedings form (P700a). To request a paper copy please contact our Helpline. Alternatively, you can request information through the contact us area of your My Pension account.
How much does it cost?
If you are paying into the Scheme or have benefits on hold and this is your first request for a CETV, there will be no charge. If you request another within 12 months, there will be a charge of £180 for each individual pension record.
If you are currently receiving a pension from GMPF, there is a charge of £180.
Please note that the above charges apply to each separate pension record and must be paid before we will calculate the CETV. All charges are inclusive of VAT.
Currently, we can only accept payment by bank transfer. Full payment details will be supplied in our letter once we have received a completed Matrimonial proceedings form (P700a).
What happens next?
Once we have given you the CETV and you have supplied details of your pension benefits to the court, you and your ex-spouse or partner can decide how any pension benefits are going to be split.
You may wish to get legal advice from your solicitor on how to deal with your LGPS benefits during any divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership.
There are usually three options to choose from:
1. Pension offsetting
You each keep your pension benefits but adjust the proportion of other assets to take account of the value of the pension benefits. For example, you could keep your pension, and your ex-spouse or ex-partner could get a larger share of the value of the house.
2. Pension earmarking
Earmarking is the arrangement that when one person's pension benefits start to be paid, some of it will be paid to their ex-spouse or ex-partner. Please note that earmarking has limitations and isn’t widely used.
3. Pension sharing
The pension is split at the time of divorce or dissolution so that you each receive a separate pension pot and can continue to build pension benefits for the future. If a pension sharing order is agreed, there is a cost of £600 for each individual pension record. This will need to be paid before we will implement the order.
If you or your former spouse or partner, fail to pay the charge in advance, we reserve the right to deduct the fee from the member’s accrued rights/pension credit. This will result in a permanent reduction to the value of benefits agreed.
Pension credit members
If you are awarded a pension credit following a pension sharing order it will be paid to you as an annual pension at your normal pension age. If you ask us to pay this earlier (minimum age 55) early retirement reductions will apply as we will be paying this to you for longer.
Alternatively, you may wish to transfer out the benefits awarded to you. A pension credit can be transferred out of the LGPS independently of any other main scheme benefits you may have either with GMPF or a different LGPS fund.
What happens to your LGPS benefits once your divorce or dissolution is completed?
Your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner will no longer be entitled to a spouse's or civil partner's pension should you die before them.
Any children’s pension paid to an eligible child when you die will not be affected by your divorce or dissolution.
If you have said that you would like your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner to receive any lump sum death grant payable on your death, this will remain in place unless you tell us otherwise by updating your expression of wish form. The court may issue an earmarking order stating that all or part of any lump sum death grant is payable to your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner despite your expression of wish preference.
You can update your lump sum death grant expression of wish details by registering or logging into My Pension. If you do not have access to My Pension you can also contact our Customer Services team and ask for a form to be sent to your address.