Teachers in divorce 'limbo' take pension legal action

Teachers unable to get divorced because of delays getting their pensions valued are taking legal action against the government.

Hundreds of teachers have been frustrated by long delays that left them "in limbo", unable to move on with their lives or plan for their future.

Construction skills lecturer David Quinton, from Gloucestershire, said the legal action was not just about financial compensation but making the government "realise that they have affected people's mental well being".

The government, which issued an apology in December, has told the BBC there are now 620 people - including recent applicants - waiting for valuations, down from 3,062 in October 2024.

"I know a statement has been issued with an apology, but I don't think that apology is worth anything truthfully. It's a bit too little, too late," Mr Quinton said.

In December, Teachers' Pensions - which runs the scheme on behalf of the Department for Education - said it aimed to clear most of the backlog by the end of February, with the government describing the calculations as "extremely complex".

The value of a pension is needed by the courts to decide whether it should be shared with an ex-partner, and without which it is almost impossible to reach a financial settlement.

A Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) is usually provided within three months of a request being submitted but some teachers have been waiting much longer.

Mr Quinton applied for a CETV in October 2023 as part of divorce proceedings and got it on 29 January this year, 15 months after applying.

Although he has now received his valuation, he said there is "still a long way to go" to finalise his divorce.

He now wants to join a group action being brought by the teaching union NASUWT and legal firm Leigh Day against the pension provider and the Department for Education.

"I think it's important that the government need to realise that they have affected people's mental well being. They have affected them financially. And there has to be an impact on them for not doing that," he said.

"It's important that those thousands of people [affected] have a voice and the way that we have a voice is by joining this action."

Mr Quinton estimates that the "elongated" process of getting the CETV has now cost him upward of £8,000 in solicitors' bills.

Wendy Dopheide, 60, is an English and drama teacher from Warminster, Wiltshire, and said she would also consider legal action.

"I can't overstate just how stressful this is for people like me in this situation," she said.

"By the age of 60, which I am now, many people are starting to look forward to retirement. I can't do that because I have no idea about what my financial situation will be when I do retire and whether I'll be able to afford to live."

She originally applied for her CETV in August 2023 but is still waiting. She said the December update claiming that the backlog would be cleared by the end of February made her "hopeful", but that since then she has been met with a "stony silence".

"When I heard about it, I thought 'wow, I can start to move on and get the information that I need'," she said.

"And I heard nothing back, nothing at all."

A similar feeling of being left in the dark is shared by Philip Hawkins, a 57-year-old retired art teacher, from Exeter.

He first contacted Teachers' Pensions about a CETV in October last year.

He was told he would have to pay for the valuation and that he would be sent an invoice. It took five months for that invoice to arrive.

"Each time I was calling up, I was told I would get a response within a certain number of days, 10 days, and never would get that response," he said.

"When I'd phone up again, I would say 'what's happened to my previous request?' I would get the same answer, that this is being escalated and we'll get back to you and each time no one ever gets back to me.

"I've felt like throwing my phone out the window and knocking my head against the wooden table because I felt there's nothing I can do here."

He received and paid an invoice for the CETV earlier this month, but said that he is "very anxious" that he could be waiting another year or two for the valuation.

"It's very tiring and it's something that wears away at you."

Ryan Bradshaw, a partner at the law firm Leigh Day, is leading the lawsuit.

"There's a clear statutory obligation within the legislation that states that Teachers' Pensions must provide CETV calculations within three months of any request," Mr Bradshaw said.

"We've got people who've been waiting in excess of 12 months for a calculation.

"They've been let down by the pension scheme administrators. They've been let down by the Department for Education... and then they're let down by the regulators and the (Pensions) Ombudsman, who've allowed this situation to persist for so long."

In an update to its members last week, Teachers' Pensions again apologised for the ongoing delays.

It had previously explained that a judgement, known as the McCloud pension remedy, resulted in the government making changes to public service pension schemes, and calculating valuations in a new way.

Teachers' Pensions said that it had been waiting on guidance to be produced and that preparing that took "a long time to agree for consistency [across all public service pension schemes] and to ensure calculations don't need to be revisited".

In December, the Department for Education said the delays were not a result of having too few staff.

Teachers' Pensions has now confirmed that 80% of that backlog has been cleared, and that it is looking at other options to provide the remaining applicants with their valuations in lieu of a CETV.

Capita, who is the current administrator of the Teachers' Pensions scheme, said the delays have been outside of its control and it is "continuing to work closely with the Department for Education to complete the remaining cases".

Meanwhile Mr Bradshaw recommends that any teachers affected by the delays pay attention to the outcome of the case.

"The main thing is that this is being brought as a collective action and.... the changes that arise as a result of any legal action can have a wider impact than just the group of those people that we're representing."

He urged people to speak to their own union representatives and keep up pressure on Teachers' Pensions and the Secretary of State for Education.

"It's just a case of creating pressure from every single angle. It's not just about bringing legal action, it's also about bringing to bear some form of political pressure as well to try and get a resolution to the wider issues."

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