Claiming Pension

Don't panic Ursa, she doesn't get to decide who gets what. It sounds like she is being totally unreasonable!

Yes Maggie, I am a member of AFPS.

Leggo - would it help you to know in advance - in time for it to inform negotiations- what income would be produced for your spouse by a "notional" share of your AFPS pension allocated to your ex-spouse?
It may be relevant to your case because if the question of spousal maintenance arises, knowing what income she will have at the age where she can take a full pension might be crucial to setting a term/end date when you will be able to cease paying spousal maintenance without "undue hardship" to your spouse - ie the test in MCA 1973 for cessation.

I know this is a cheek but if you were to explore this crucial aspect of your pension sharing with AFPS it might greatly benefit others if you felt able to share your experience.

The example of sharing in the AFPS leaflet referred to earlier stops short at the amount of debit annotated on the donor pension - the next step- the transfer to the ex-spouse making them a pension credit member is shrouded in mystery - how do they do it?
Does the ex-spouse/pension credit member get a "pension promise" - ie a risk-free minimum ££££ a year at age ???? - plus any increase for index-linking in the period of pension credit membership?

In a Pensions Ombudsman determination this same pension admin company - Paymaster- provided in advance of divorce financial negotiations - an apparently free of charge illustration of a notional 25% share transferred to the ex-spouse. They showed how the amount was arrived at
They did this in response to the pension member's solicitor asking for that information.
[corrected to "member's solicitor" not "member's spouse's solicitor" which is incorrect ]
I just wonder if that approach might be successful with AFPS/Paymaster?

Maggie - Yes, it would be useful to know how much the percentage works out as. I have an immediate pension because I stayed on past my 55 year point. So I know exactly what the size of my pension is. What I'm not sure about is whether they take 25% of my actual pension or use some other figure. If the former then it's easy to work out how much my wife would get. The difficult bit though is working out how much my wife would get if she took her pension at 55 i.e had it paid to her for an extra 10 years. However, I think that AFPS will work out the calculation for us, all we need to do is ask I guess. As I've mentioned before, I don't like the idea of pension sharing because my wife would get a lump sum as well as a pension, and that lump sum would come from my gratuity. I need the gratuity to buy a house, having already bought my wife one. I'll certainly share anything I find out.