Police Pensions

Wiki's pension expert answered this question recently and he said if you have a police pension share you don't get it until you're 60.

Hi

I am in West Yorkshire. My ex never wanted to leave me (and still hassles me to take him back). He used me as a smoke screen for all his shagging!

He has resigned (forced to) and no longer has the opportunities available to him anymore.

As I see it, if my ex is entitled to half his pension next year, then he would have been entitled to all of it, had I not got half in the divorce. Therefore, I should get my half at the same time.

Must be a way of the government making money. But at the end of the day, it seems that both you and I are punished for having low lifes as exes and that sure isn't fair in my book!

My ex was ordered to pay me £500 per month until 2014, but shortly after the divorce, he "resigned" from the police and got a lower paid job, so of course he doesn't have enough to pay me £500. Clever bugger, but as soon as I know his pension is in payment I will get what I am entitled to.

Would be interested to know what the pensions people say.

Jo x

Police officers and other uniformed services get their pensions early because they reach an age when it is not reasonable to expect them to be able to continue their roles...

Can the average fire officer in his/her late 50s be expected to climb a long ladder, climb into a burning building and carry someone down said ladder in the same way a young person could... Can a police officer in his/her late 50s be expected to run down dark alleyways after a young drug dealer and wrestle a knife from his/her hand like a younger person? ...Can a soldier/sailor/airwo/man in his/her late 50s be expected to serve his/her country in a war setting in the same way as a younger person?

And once retired very few will be able to get jobs that pay them as much, so need their pensions in the way a mother who hasn't worked needs spousal maintenance...

Their spouses, however, unless they're in equally physically challenging jobs, can continue to work in their jobs until normal retirement age like the rest of us do... so why should you get your pension early?

Police/fire/military people get their pensions early for a practical reason... the reasons don't apply to their spouses, so why should the spouse get their portion of the pension early? Also, these pensions are publicly funded, as a tax payer I for one would object if they did...

When you have been together all your life and worked towards your husbands pension together for your early retirement then it is unfair. I for one cannot work due to medical reasons. My ex worked in a call centre and could have easily continued working there and is doing far more manual work since he retired.

I'm simply explaining the philosophy behind why people with these jobs get their pensions early. If you have a specific reason you can't earn then there are 'rules' that should ensure your needs are met - probably with SM for life. However, that is not the same as a blanket 'all ex-spouses of people in these professions' should get their pension early.

I would also suggest that one spouse cannot work all their life towards someone else's pension - you can only pay into your own.

"Police/fire/military people get their pensions early for a practical reason... the reasons don't apply to their spouses, so why should the spouse get their portion of the pension early? Also, these pensions are publicly funded, as a tax payer I for one would ­object­ if they did..."
Ephelia why would you object? It is not as if it is costing the tax payer any more. If a police officer was to get 20k on retirement at age 55 and there is 50/50 pension share in place then both partners would (in theory) get 10K. As things stand at the moment the husband gets 10K and the other 10 stays in the governments coffers until the wife is 60, or in my case with a military pension share, 65. Also the husband could be disadvantages because as a result of the wife not getting her share at the same time the husband might have to pay SM. It seems to me it is a lose, lose situation for everyone!

Ephelia,

I think you don't quite understand the police pension scheme. There are different pensions a divorcing spouse can agree to. The one the earlier poster (and myself) have is the one where we get half our ex husband's pension at 60.

We could actually have received it at the same time as the Police officer (our ex), however, if he died before retirement age, the whole pension died and in addition if we remarried we lost it.

So, therefore, we agreed to take it at 60.

The earlier poster is disabled. She supported her ex throughout his police career (as I did) and therefore she believed that when he retired, (a couple of years after he left her) she would have been reaping the benefits of the pension they grew together.

Remember, the pension is not given for nothing. It is taken out of the police officer's salary every month. Therefore, if there was no pension, every month more income would have come into the house.

As Penny10 so rightly says, if the police officer receives his after 30 years service, but only gets half due to divorce, the other half is still there. The police officer does not gain from it and neither does his partner. Some body must gain. The money is there after all.

Police officers (and their wives) are fully informed of retirement and pensions. Therefore, they build TOGETHER to look forward to that happening, to reap the benefits TOGETHER.

As for retirement age. Many police officers do not retire after 30 years service, but continue to work in the police force, so that is not the reason why they receive their pensions after 30 years service.

I remember when my daughters were tiny, we could have done with the 11% my husband was paying for his pension fund. He had no choice but to pay it.


If two people support each other towards a pension, there is absolutely no reason why one should get it and the other have to wait years for it.

btw, the ex fully agrees that I should be getting my half of the pension at the same time as he receives his.

Jo x