Armed Forces pensions (AFPS) and divorce

General information, not advice on your own case. If an Armed Forces pension is part of your divorce, get it properly valued before you agree anything.

The key points

Members can start drawing a forces pension far earlier than an ordinary pension, sometimes decades before a normal retirement age. That early, guaranteed, inflation linked income is worth a great deal.
The transfer value rarely reflects that early payment right, which is largely invisible in a single CE figure.
A share is payable at the scheme's own pension age, often 60 or 65, not at the early age the serving member could draw theirs. That timing mismatch is central to valuing the pension fairly.
The credit stays inside the Armed Forces scheme and cannot be transferred out.
Early Departure Payments are not pension. They are compensation, they are not included in the transfer value, and they cannot be shared by a pension sharing order. Where they are significant they need dealing with another way.
The “McCloud” correction applies here too, and forces corrections have been subject to delay, so treat a current CE as potentially provisional.

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Why it matters

The Armed Forces pension is unusually valuable, for a reason that catches people out: members can start drawing it far earlier than an ordinary pension, sometimes decades before a normal retirement age. That early, guaranteed, inflation-linked income is worth a great deal, and the transfer value the scheme quotes rarely reflects it.

What kind of pension it is

The Armed Forces Pension Scheme is a defined benefit scheme, built up over the years in different versions:

AFPS 75 and AFPS 05, older schemes with their own terms, including the ability to draw a pension after a set period of service rather than at a fixed age;
AFPS 15, the career-average scheme all serving personnel now build up in.

One distinctive feature: members do not pay contributions into the scheme, the value is delivered through the overall pay arrangement instead. It is still a real, valuable pension asset for divorce purposes.

Why the value is easy to get wrong

The scheme quotes a cash equivalent (CE / CETV), and for a forces pension it is a particularly poor guide to value:

The member can draw it far earlier than the ex-spouse’s share can be drawn. The service member may be able to take an unreduced, index-linked pension years, sometimes many years, before the age at which a shared portion becomes payable to an ex-spouse. That early-payment value is largely invisible in the CE.

It is a standard, government-set figure that is periodically changed, so, as with all public-sector schemes, two CEs from different dates may not be comparable.

The “McCloud” correction affects it too, and forces-pension corrections have been subject to delay, so treat a current CE as potentially provisional and confirm its status.

Experienced practitioners will tell you that a forces-pension CE is, in practice, almost always an undervaluation. For any Armed Forces pension in a divorce, an independent valuation by a Pension on Divorce Expert (PODE) is strongly advisable.

What happens when it is shared

A Pension Sharing Order gives your ex-spouse benefits inside the Armed Forces scheme in their own right, a “pension credit member”. That credit cannot be transferred out of the scheme, and it is typically payable at the scheme’s own pension age (often 60 or 65), not at the early age at which the serving member could draw theirs. So the person receiving the share may have to wait far longer for it than the member does. That mismatch is central to valuing the pension fairly.

Things to watch

Early Departure Payments are not the pension. Payments made on leaving early are compensation, not pension benefits, they are not included in the transfer value and cannot be shared by a pension sharing order. Where they are significant, they need to be dealt with another way (for example through offsetting or maintenance), not ignored.
Consider the different schemes separately. Because the older and newer schemes work differently, it can be appropriate to deal with each part on its own terms.
Identifiability and confidentiality. Forces pensions are calculated from rank and service, and the population is small, so anonymity in any published example or document must be handled with particular care.

What to do next

Not sure whether you need an expert? Try the “Do I need a PODE?” tool.
Ready to find one? The directory lists verified experts you can approach directly.
Want the background? See the main guide on how pension sharing works.

July 2026