My son’s wife has left him for another man. My son was in the army for 13 years, but his wife says she can now claim half of the pension that rightly belongs to him. They have three children, one of whom has stayed with him. He is now awaiting divorce.
It’s not quite so straightforward as that, but it’s true that pensions can be shared or split on divorce, and army pensions are no exception. Your son should see a solicitor as soon as possible for advice about who might be entitled to what. If your son and his wife cannot reach an agreement about splitting their finances they will have to ask a court to decide at an ancillary relief hearing. Usually a court would only look at dividing a pension if it wasn’t possible to split the family assets in any other way.