14 Apr 2021

Divorced Retired Women May Be Losing £££'S

If a woman is aged over 60, and reached state pension age before April 6, 2016, on divorce she would have been entitled to use her ex-husband’s National Insurance history when evaluating her state pension benefits. But some women are losing valuable state pension that they are not even aware of.

If the divorce occurred before retirement, then the Government would have already been aware of this when the state pension is claimed, with the divorcee obtaining any rights she may have had automatically.

However, if a woman divorces after she has retired, she should tell the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), as she may then be entitled to an uplift in her state pension benefits.

Calculations indicate, that for a retirement of 20 years, this could equate to an extra income of £50,000 that the divorcee could have, or not have, if the DWP is not kept informed.

This is a significant uplift, which is not widely known, but should not be ignored.