It has been reported in the Guardian this week that current and retired teachers who are going through divorce have said “their lives are on hold because of a bureaucratic logjam involving their pensions”.
It has not just been teachers who have been impacted. The case of McCloud (which was named after a member of the Judicial Pension Scheme), resulted in some perhaps unintended circumstances when it was determined that younger members of public sector schemes had been discriminated against, as compared to older members, following reforms made by the Government to transition younger members into new potentially less generous schemes.
The Government committed to a change to those schemes affected by this ruling which included teachers, the NHS, firefighters, police, army, local government and others. This led to significant delays in those schemes producing Cash Equivalent Valuations which is usually the first step in considering pension sharing on divorce. Many parties were simply left in limbo, unable to move forward, while the schemes were trying to address these issues.
Thankfully, we are now seeing the backlog beginning to clear with McCloud compliant Cash Equivalent Valuations being produced for many public sector schemes which will bring a great deal of frustration and stress to a swifter end for many people up and down the country.
If you have any questions about pensions on divorce, pension sharing or protecting your pension, please do not hesitate to get in touch.