Pensions
From 1st December 2000 divorcing couples will be able to take advantage of new pension sharing laws. This means that either spouse will be able to ask the Court to split the other spouse's pensions and obtain a new pension fund for themselves.
This will supplement the 1996 "earmarking" arrangements whereby a divorcing party could be ordered to pay part of the income or tax free sum payable under a pension scheme to their spouse on retirement.
The inflexibility of those "earmarking" arrangements often led to an unsatisfactory position in which pensions have either been ignored in dividing the family assets or dealt with by "offsetting". This is the process by which one spouse receives more of the immediately available assets in order to compensate him or her for the loss of pension rights. In limited asset cases it is often difficult to achieve a fair result by this method.
For full details of the new provisions go to www.dss.gov.uk/hq/press/2000/apr2000/00118.htm