If you are going through a divorce or dissolution of a marriage or civil partnership, the court will account for the value of your pension benefits 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 be aware 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 Customer Services team. Alternatively, you can request information through the contact us area of your My Pension account.
How much does it cost?
Whether there will be a charge for your CETV will depend on what type of member you are and if you have already requested a CETV in the past 12 months.
| First request | Additional request within 12 months | |
| Contributing member or benefits on hold member | Free | £180 |
| Pensioner | £180 | £180 |
The above charges apply to each pension account you have, and they must be paid before we will calculate the CETV. All charges are inclusive of VAT.
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 once I have received my CETV?
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.
What are the options for splitting my pension benefits?
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 and can continue to build pension benefits for the future. If a pension sharing order is agreed, you will need to pay a fee of £600 for each individual pension account that we need to split. You will need to pay this fee 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 your accrued rights or the pension credit. This will result in a permanent reduction to the value of the benefits agreed.
What happens to my LGPS benefits once my divorce or dissolution is completed?
Your pension and any lump sum will be reduced by the amount allocated to your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner at the point of divorce/dissolution. The reduction is called a pension debit.
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.
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. 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 in your My Pension account.
If I die, will the dependant pension for my children be affected?
Any children’s pension due to an eligible child when you die will not be affected by your divorce or dissolution.
Can I still transfer my pension?
Yes, if your pension is subject to a pension sharing order, you can still transfer your remaining benefits to another pension arrangement. If you transfer within the LGPS, your new fund will reduce your benefits by the pension debit when you take your pension.
What happens if I remarry or enter into a new civil partnership?
If your benefits are subject to a pension sharing order and you remarry, enter into a new civil partnership, or enter into a cohabiting partnership, then any pension payable to your partner after your death will also be reduced.
If you divorce or dissolve your civil partnership again, your remaining pension rights can be subject sharing order on divorce. The exceptions to this are:
- A pension sharing order cannot be issued if an earmarking order has already been issued against your LGPS pension.
- An earmarking order cannot be issued if your pension benefits are already subject to a pension sharing order.