APPENDIX 7
Memorandum submitted by the Law Society
of Scotland (PS 31)
BACKGROUND AND
THE EXISTING
LAW
The number of divorces doubled over the 1960s.
From 1971 to 1995 it trebled to 12,000 per year. As divorce has
become sadly more common, the importance and value of pension
rights involved has increased. Nineteen million workers in the
U.K. (over three quarters of those in work) have occupational
or personal pension scheme entitlements. It has been estimated
that sharing has to be considered of pension rights valued in
excess of £1,000 million annually. A man is four times more
likely than a woman to have valuable rights. In 70 per cent of
divorces one has substantial non-State pension rights. It is disappointing,
therefore, that it was only with the greatest reluctance that
the Government had forced upon it amendments dealing with divorce
to the Pensions Act 1995, the legislative reaction to the Maxwell
scandal. Family Law and Pensions Law are different specialisms
and specialists have not always been able to understand each other
fully.
|
