Pension rights after remarriage

I have been split from my ex wife for over 15 years now and due to a divorce settlement (not through a court, but own agreement) have been paying her half of my civil service pension since we spilt. She entered into another relationship over 10 years ago now and is remarrying. Will she still be entitlement to half of my pension after she marries ?

If you did not have a legally binding financial settlement on divorce, then you are under no obligation to keep paying her as far as I can see.

However it is still open to either of you to apply for a legally binding agreement. This can be by consent or imposed by a court if you cannot agree.
She could ask for maintenance based on the fact you have been paying or she could ask for a pension share. Depending on who was the applicant in the divorce and what procedures were followed, she could, if she remarried, be barred from making such an application. This is known as the remarriage trap.

If your divorce was after 2000 then you could have had a pension sharing order at the time. This would, in effect, provide her with a pension in her own right. It would have been based on the pension pot then rather than the benefits you draw now.

What did you do about other assets you have between you? How old are you both and how long were you married?

Hadenoughnow

Thank you for the speedy reply. Are ages now are myself 57 and her 55. When we spite we divided equally the profit made from selling the family home, although she had run up hidden debts which I "inherited". This meant that the eventual settlement was 70-30% in her advantage.

She has worked most of her adult life but had never bothered to enter a private pension scheme.

forgot to mention we were married 23 years.

After a marriage of that length the presumed start point for division of assets is 50:50 although that is often not how it ends up.

The division of assets is based first on need. Were there children under 18 to consider when you split up? How long after you separated did you divorce? A brief chronology would be helpful.

If there was disparity in your incomes, it would not be unreasonable for the property to be split 70:30 if that was what was needed to rehouse each of you and any dependent children.

The pension would also be split to allow for equality of income on retirement. This would not necessarily mean a straight 50:50 of CEV because of disparity in ages. It would also depend on whether the pension for her would be within your existing scheme or purchased from another provider.

Is your pension currently in payment?