Actuarial reduction on final salary pension

A question about : Actuarial reduction on final salary pension

I gave up work to raise a family. I gave up a career which offered a final salary pension at 55. My partner has a similar pension. Our three kids are in the process of leaving home. My partner divorced me last year after a 20+ year marriage. A pension sharing order payable to me will pay me at 60 or 65. I don't want to work that long whilst my ex stops at 55. I can get part time work but starting afresh s tough - my ex partner is at the top of the career ladder by contrast.

Given we were married for so long, is it reasonable for me to still expect to also stop work and take benefits at 55 as I would have done? The pension fund would have to take into account an actuarial reduction which could mean that for us to have equality of income, I could end up with more (%) of the pension fund than my partner? I should add, I'm not expecting to be unfairly advantaged, I'm just looking to see if the principle that we always expected to retire at the same age can be taken into account when dividing the value of the pension, and that reduction then applied to the PSO accordingly in some form.

Thank you.

Best answers:

• When the pension sharing order was granted, you will have been given a pension credit (basically, a pension), and your ex partner will have been given a pension debit (a negative pension). The pension credit and debit will have the same value, so if the court said he had to give you Ј100k from his pension, the credit will have been calculated to be worth +Ј100k and the debit will be worth -Ј100k.
  From then on, the credit and debit are completely separate - you can choose to retire at age 55, 60 or 65, and your credit will be adjusted upwards or downwards so that it keeps broadly the same value (the earlier you take it, the smaller the annual pension, but the overall expected value will be about the same)
  Your ex-partner will keep building up extra pension while (s)he works, and when (s)he chooses to retire, the debit will be deducted from his/her pension. But what you do with your pension credit will have no impact on that pension.
  In terms of your questions about dividing the value, if the PSO has already been granted, then its too late - the decision about how much to transfer from your ex to you has already happened.
• Hi, and thanks for the reply. The PSO has not yet been determined. I was wondering if I could press for equality of income at an equal age (55), even if that meant me getting a subsequently larger %.
• That's not something I have any knowledge of I'm afraid - I guess you could try.
  My understanding is that when determining PSOs, courts tend to look at the share of value. For example, if you've agreed that a 50:50 split of all assets is reasonable, and you are keeping a house worth Ј100k, and your ex has a pension worth Ј300k, then you would get Ј100k from the pension so that you both end up with Ј200k of assets.
  But I could wrong on that - in particular I believe courts look at the needs of each individual - so if you can argue you need a greater proportion of the pension because you gave up your career? It's probably one to ask your solicitor.
• Thank you.
• Why would equality of income at 55 give you a larger %? Because both of you would be taking actuarially reduced pensions at that age, wouldn't you?
• No, the pension scheme allows the member to take benefits at 55 but the former partner only at 60/65.
• But regardless of the scheme rules and starting point for calculating reductions or enhamncements, if you have two people (of similar life expectancy) taking a pension at 55 to give the same pension you would need to divide the pot in half.