Pension Sharing

Hi, newbie here.
My ex & I separated 2yrs ago. We were married for 7yrs. We recently divorced and he was seeking a Clean Break order in respect of our finances to protect his future inheritances.
however, upon exchanging D81’s we realised my public service pension is worth nearly 3 times his. Most of it was accrued pre-marriage, 9yrs.
I gave up my job to care for our children 3yrs into marriage. He was able to pursue & progress his career, even getting a company car.
Upon separating, he returned to live with mother, so his outgoings are minimal. Our home is rented & I have been left paying everything, including our family car & raising our children. He sees them every other weekend & only pays CMS. His solicitor is being very slow & evasive for info I request. I can not afford a solicitor, but have had advice & was told I should be able to ring fence my pre-marital pension. This is causing me a lot of stress. I just want it sorted & him out of my life as much as is possible with children. I can’t find any similar situations that give me hope and wondered if anyone here can advise, please? Thank you

I think it's really going to depend on how much the pension is worth, what your ages are, what you are both earning and whether you plan to be dependent on him in any way other the statutory child maintenance.

If there were no children involved and it was a clean break case a good rule of thumb would be:

(value of pension now - value of pension when you began cohabiting) / 2

Thank you so much for your reply. I’m not sleeping & feel very anxious.
I haven’t worked since 2017, my son is autistic and shift work round family was impossible in our circs.
We are mid 40’s. I have no idea when I will be able to return to work as I am full time carer fit our son. My argument is my ex has at least 15yrs to improve his pension, I don’t. He will also stop paying CMS in respect of another child in 5yrs. Would that be taken into account? Many thanks

I think your case is far too complicated to be handled without an experienced solicitor I'm afraid. All this might be taken into account, or it might not. For example, it will depend where on the autism scale your child is and whether your inability to work is reasonable (for example, if your child went to school, you would need to explain why you could not work during these hours).

Thank you so much for your help. It still astounds me I’m expected to work around childcare while the ex has the freedom & flexibility to work whatever he wants with no considerations. You’d think in this day & age, it would be equal responsibility!

If you cannot afford to engage a solicitor you could talk to one of our consultants about whether our fixed price solicitor service may be useful. It is wise to take legal advice before committing to a Consent Order.
Depending on the circumstances it may be possible to consider only the pension accrued during the marriage. You would need to explain the rationale for the agreement on the D81.

We would need to know a bit more about your circumstances to advise more effectively.

Ages
Incomes
Length of marriage + cohabitation
Value of assets - Inc pensions
Debts in sole and joint names
Children - ages and proposed arrangements for them

Hadenoughnow

Brilliant! Do I just use the green ‘free consultation’ link at the top to do this? Thank you!