Women Ignore Divorce Pensions Laws

Women are ignoring divorce pension laws according to research by Killick and Co.  

Laws to make pensions fairer for women when couples divorce are still being ignored by women.  These divorce pension laws have been here for many years.  

After the matrimonial home, pensions are normally the biggest asset in a divorce settlement, yet between October 2006 and September 2007 only 7.89 per cent of divorces contained pensions sharing orders.  This shows that women still ignore divorce pensions laws and may miss out on pension income.  

Our view

Women often struggle to gain pensions that provide enough income to survive, let alone enjoy old age after divorce.  This is because women are more likely to take career breaks, typically earn less than men and because women live longer, women receive lower incomes from pension annuities when they retire.  By missing out on receiving a proportion of their partner’s pensions pots on divorce can only make a poor situation worse for women.

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