Separation or divorce and your pension

Learn how a separation or divorce affects your pension and review the issues to consider.

Paying the divided pension benefit

Once your former spouse becomes a limited member, they may be entitled to either a monthly pension or a lump-sum payment to a locked-in retirement vehicle.

The factors that affect your former spouse’s options include:

• Your age
• Whether you are eligible to retire or have already retired
• How you choose to receive your pension benefit (i.e., as a pension or as a lump sum, if you’re eligible to receive one)
• When you stop working for WorkSafeBC

If you are retiring and your former spouse is a limited member who has not yet started receiving their share of the pension, we will notify them of their pension options, just as we notify you of your options.

We will calculate your pension and your former spouse’s entitlement and pay their share directly to them and reduce your monthly pension payment by the amount going to your former spouse.

If you and your spouse separate or divorce after you retire, the pension option you chose at retirement will apply to both your share and your former spouse’s share of the pension.

Depending on the pension option you selected when you retired, your former spouse may continue to receive the pension after your death.

If your former spouse has not drawn on their share of the pension but has submitted a separation agreement, court order or Form P9 Agreement to have benefits divided to claim an interest in your pension, we will contact them and give them 30 days notice before processing their pension payments.

If your former spouse was entitled to a share of your pension and did not become a limited member before their death, their personal representative has 30 days from the date of our written notice to apply to become a limited member.