Pensions and Divorce: Pension Sharing, Offsetting and Attachment Explained

Reviewed 30 October 2026 · England and Wales · General information, not legal advice

Pensions are divided alongside the house and savings. A pension sharing order gives one spouse a percentage of the other's pension as their own; offsetting trades pension for other assets; attachment orders are now rare.

Pensions count in a divorce settlement in England and Wales just as the house and savings do, and after the family home they are usually the most valuable asset a couple owns. There are three ways to deal with them: a pension sharing order, which transfers a percentage of one spouse's pension into a pension for the other; offsetting, where one keeps the pension and the other takes more of something else; and the now rare attachment order, which pays part of the pension to the ex-spouse when it comes into payment. Only a court order can share a pension, and unmarried partners have no claim at all. This guide explains how each route works, how pensions are valued, the timing traps and what it all costs.

Why pensions matter so much

Many people treat a pension as the saver's private property, but the court's duty under section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 includes considering the value of any pension benefit a party will lose because of the divorce, and pensions built up during the marriage are matrimonial property to be shared like any other. For couples who have been together a long time, the pension pot is frequently worth more than the equity in the home.

The risk of ignoring pensions falls mainly on the lower earner, often the parent who worked part time while raising children. Taking the house and leaving the pensions untouched can look attractive at 45 and feel very different at 68. Defined benefit schemes, the salary-related pensions common in the NHS, teaching, the police, the civil service, the armed forces and local government, are especially easy to undervalue, because the figure the scheme quotes bears little relation to what the promised income would cost to buy. The same rules apply to civil partners on dissolution. Cohabiting couples, however long they have lived together, have no right to share a partner's pension when they separate; see the legal position of unmarried couples.

Valuing a pension: the cash equivalent and its limits

The standard valuation is the cash equivalent transfer value (CETV), which every scheme must provide on request, free of charge once a year, and which goes on Form E. For a defined contribution pension the CETV is simply the fund value and tells you what you need to know. For a defined benefit scheme it is the scheme's actuarial estimate of the lump sum it would hand over if the member transferred out, and it is often a poor guide to the pension's real worth: two pensions with identical CETVs can promise very different incomes depending on the scheme's retirement age, index-linking, survivor benefits and funding assumptions. Public sector CETVs in particular tend to understate the cost of buying an equivalent guaranteed income.

Dividing CETVs equally therefore does not produce equal retirement incomes, especially where the spouses are different ages or one has a defined benefit pension and the other a personal pension. Solicitors routinely instruct a pensions on divorce expert (PODE), usually an actuary, where the pensions are substantial, where any of them is defined benefit, or where there is an age gap. The expert reports on how to divide the pensions to equalise either capital or income, and on the share needed to achieve a specific outcome. Reports typically cost between about £1,500 and £4,000 plus VAT, usually shared between the parties, and take several weeks. The Pensions Advisory Group's Guide to the Treatment of Pensions on Divorce, whose second edition appeared in December 2023, is the reference practitioners and judges work from.

Pension sharing orders

Pension sharing was introduced by the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 for proceedings begun on or after 1 December 2000. The order specifies a percentage of the member's pension, which the scheme deducts (a pension debit) and credits to the former spouse (a pension credit). The recipient becomes a pension holder in their own right, either as a member of the same scheme, which most public sector schemes allow, or by transferring the credit to a pension of their choice, which most private schemes require. That is a clean break: nothing depends on when the member retires or dies, and remarriage does not affect it.

Points to know:

• The order states a percentage, not a sum. If the fund value moves between valuation and implementation, the recipient gets the percentage of the new value.
• A sharing order is available on divorce, dissolution of a civil partnership and nullity, not on judicial separation.
• It forms part of a consent order or a contested financial order, with a pension sharing annex (Form P1) for each pension being shared. The guide to consent orders explains how agreed terms become an order.
• The order cannot take effect before the final order of divorce. It takes effect 28 days after it is made or on the final order, whichever is later.
• The scheme then has four months to implement it, running from the later of the date the order takes effect and the date it receives the sealed order, the annex, the final order and any charge.
• Schemes may charge for implementation. Charges vary widely, from nothing with some defined contribution providers to well over £1,000 with some large schemes, which publish schedules of charges reviewed each year. The order must say who pays, often the member or a split, and the scheme will not start until it is paid.

The timing rule creates a trap. If the final order of divorce is made before the pension sharing order and the member dies in between, the ex-spouse loses both the pension share and any widow's or widower's pension, because they are no longer a spouse. Solicitors therefore usually hold back the application for the final order until the financial order, including the pension share, has been made; see how long a divorce takes.

Offsetting

Offsetting means one spouse keeps all or more of the pension while the other takes a larger share of a different asset, most often the equity in the family home. It appeals to couples who want a clean separation without involving the pension scheme, and to a parent who needs the house now rather than an income in twenty years.

The danger is comparing unlike with unlike. A pension is gross: it will be taxed when drawn, cannot be touched before the normal minimum pension age (55 now, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028), and in a defined benefit scheme cannot be cashed in at all. Equity in a house is net, available immediately and usable as you choose. Setting £100,000 of CETV against £100,000 of equity therefore favours the person taking the equity, and experts apply discounts for tax and inflexibility, which is contested territory. A pensions expert can give a defensible figure. Where offsetting would leave one spouse with little or no retirement provision, the court is likely to reject it or require a partial pension share alongside it. The guide to what happens to the house covers the housing side of these trades.

Attachment orders and why they are rare

An attachment order, originally called earmarking, directs the scheme to pay part of the member's pension income, lump sum or death benefit to the former spouse when it becomes payable, under sections 25B to 25D of the 1973 Act. It was the only pension remedy before 2000 and is now seldom used, for good reasons. There is no clean break: the recipient waits until the member chooses to retire, receives income taxed as the member's, loses the income on remarriage, and loses everything if the member dies first. Attachment survives mainly for death-in-service lump sums, for pensions already in payment where sharing is impractical, and for some overseas schemes that cannot be shared.

The State Pension

The basic and new State Pension cannot be shared. For proceedings begun on or after 6 April 2016 the only shareable element is a "protected payment", the amount by which someone's starting entitlement exceeded the full new State Pension when the system changed; most people have none. For older cases the additional State Pension (SERPS and the State Second Pension) could be shared. A statement of what can be shared is obtained from the Department for Work and Pensions on form BR20 or BR20NSP, and the court needs it before making any order touching the State Pension. Under the new State Pension you can no longer improve your own record using an ex-spouse's National Insurance contributions, so anyone with gaps should check their forecast on GOV.UK and consider voluntary contributions as part of the overall settlement.

Process, costs and getting advice

A sensible sequence:

1. Write to every scheme, including old workplace pensions, for a CETV and its pension sharing information pack (Form P), which sets out charges and procedures.
2. Exchange disclosure with your spouse so that all pensions are on the table.
3. Decide, ideally with your solicitor, whether a PODE report is needed and agree a joint instruction.
4. Negotiate the percentage or the offset, usually as part of the overall financial settlement, through solicitors, mediation or arbitration.
5. Have the order drafted with an annex for each pension, submit it for approval, and time the final order of divorce around it.
6. Send the sealed order, annex and final order to the scheme with any charge, and chase implementation within the four months.
7. Take independent financial advice on where to hold the pension credit.

Costs come in layers: the solicitor's fees, the expert's report, the scheme's implementation charge and the court fee for the order. Pension work is rarely a fixed-fee item in itself, but divorce solicitors often quote fixed fees for an agreed settlement that includes a pension share. Legal aid is confined to cases with evidence of domestic abuse.

You can reasonably handle pensions without a solicitor where both of you have modest defined contribution pots of similar size and agree to leave them alone, provided that decision is recorded in a clean break order. Where either of you has a defined benefit pension, the pots are unequal, or you are considering offsetting, take advice: mistakes here cannot be corrected once the order is final. Compare divorce solicitors in Leeds or search for divorce solicitors in Birmingham, and ask whether the firm regularly instructs pensions experts. For background on how schemes are regulated see what pension law covers. In Scotland pension sharing also exists, but only the value built up between the wedding and the date of separation counts as matrimonial property.

Frequently asked questions

Is my ex entitled to half my pension?

Not automatically. Pensions built up during the marriage are shared, and equality is the starting point, but the court looks at needs, the length of the marriage, each party's age and what else is being divided. A pension built up largely before the marriage may be shared only in part, while a long marriage with one main earner often produces a share designed to equalise retirement incomes rather than fund values.

Can we agree between ourselves to leave pensions out?

You can, but record it in a clean break consent order; otherwise either of you could claim against the other's pension years later. The court will approve such an agreement where the pensions are modest or similar in value, but a judge may question an order that leaves one spouse with no retirement provision, and it is wise to understand the real value before giving it up.

Can a pension already being paid be shared?

Yes. A pension in payment can be made subject to a sharing order, which reduces the member's income and gives the former spouse their own pension credit. Where the credit comes from a pension already in payment, the usual tax-free lump sum is not available on it. An attachment order is sometimes used instead where sharing is impractical.

How long does a pension sharing order take to go through?

The order takes effect 28 days after it is made or on the final order of divorce, whichever is later. The scheme then has four months to implement it, counted from the later of that date and the date it receives the sealed order, the annex, the final order and any implementation charge. Delays usually come from missing documents or an unpaid charge, so send everything together.

Do I have to pay tax on a pension credit?

No tax is charged when the credit is transferred. The pension you receive from it is taxed in the normal way when you draw it, and if it is a credit from a pension already in payment, the usual tax-free lump sum is not available on that part. Take financial advice on where to hold the credit and when to draw it.

Can a pension be shared after the divorce is finalised?

Yes, provided no order has dismissed the claims and the applicant has not remarried, because the final order of divorce does not end financial claims. The risk is that the member dies before an order is made, leaving nothing to share. If the divorce is already final and pensions were never dealt with, take advice promptly.

Related guides

• Financial Settlements on Divorce: How Assets Are Divided
• What Is a Consent Order and Do You Need One?
• How Long Does a Divorce Take in England and Wales?
• What Is Pension law?

This guide describes the law in England and Wales as at 30 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice about your situation; the law and the figures it quotes change, so check the position with a solicitor before acting. LawFirms.co.uk is a directory and does not provide legal services.