Alimony and pension

Alimony

If you wish to pursue a joint application for divorce as described on this page, alimony must be calculated. It is the only way to determine if the amount agreed for alimony is correct.

You are also free to waive your right to alimony for yourself. In this case the alimony calculations are necessary to determine if the decision to waive the right to alimony support is justified or not. If you waive alimony support and one of you requires a social security allowance, social services (Sociale Dienst) have a duty to recover costs. This means that the Sociale Dienst must consider whether alimony payments were due. If they conclude that alimony payments should be paid, social services will attempt to collect this money.

Note: the calculation of alimony is not included in the price. You must send us the alimony calculation, along with any documents on which your calculation is based, with the extracts and/or consensual contract.

Pension

If you want to assert your right to an (equal) share of your spouse’s pension (in principle 50% of the pension collected during the marriage), you must notify your spouse’s pension company within two years of the divorce being recorded in the register in order to ensure an independent right. Your pension company can send you a clear brochure about retirement as well as registration forms. Ask your pension company about survivor pensions. This type of pension is different to the retirement (or old age) pension. Some pension companies will accept a waiver, but that share is then returned to the pension company. For other companies it is added to the old age pension. Your decision whether or not to divide the survivors pension will depend on how the pension company will behave, and on their opinion.