armed forces pension sharing

I have been separated from my husband, a retired RM Officer since 2002 after 16 years of marriage. He now lives in Sri Lanka.
I am intending to get a divorce and apply for a pension sharing order as I have a very small income and he does not support me.
He is extremely angry that I should want this and I know he will make things very difficult. How will I be able to get him to make a declaration of his means if he is living so far away and refuses to co-operate?He has said that he is prepared to renounce his right to his pension completely rather than let me have any part of it, either as a widow's pension if he should die before the divorce, or as a pension share. Can he really do this?

anna,

Welcome to wiki.

Re the pension. He may be angry about this but a pension share is one of the settlement options on divorce.

If there are no other assets between you then it may be the only option available to ensure you receive some form of financial settlement. How exactly it is shared depends on a lot of factors including age, length of marriage, depedent children, value of other assets etc (section 25 of the 1973 Metrimonial Causes Act).

www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/...ArmedForcesPensions/

is a link to a lot of information about MOD pensions and how they work on divorce. There is more than one type of MOD scheme so you do need to know which one you are looking at. If you cannot get the link to work just google armed forces pension divorce.

There have also been several threads about services/MOD/Army pensions on wiki in recent months which it wd be worth you searching for.

AFAIK the share you would be enititled to is 50% of the pension accrued during the years you were married. If he had 22 years service and you were married for 16 years, this would be 16/22nds divided by two. In real life it is a bit more complicated (!) and you may very well need some professional help to sort it - but please, please, please make sure you are dealing with someone who knows about pensions, especially MOD pensions.

Hadenoughnow

Thank you for your advice. I realise how important it will be to use a solicitor who has experuience of MOD pensions. What is really worrying me is whether it is possible for him to renounce his pension rights completely, even though he is currently drawing it?