GEPF Divorce Benefits – A clear explanation on the GEPF and Divorce: The “clean-break” divorce principle was added to the Pension Fund Act 24 of 1956 on 13 September 2007. This means that a non member spouse can claim their share of the benefit from the Pension Fund before the member resigns, retires or dies. Here we show how to claim your divorce benefit from the GEPF.
GEPF Divorce: This however was not applicable to the Government Employee Pension Law and former spouses of a member had to wait until the member retired, resigned or died.
On 14 December 2011 the The GEPF Law Amendment Act 2011 amended the law to provide for the implementation of the “clean-break” principle. This means that former spouses of members contributing to the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) can now claim their share of the fund as stipulated in their divorce order and don’t have to wait until retirement, resignation or death.
In order to claim your share of the Fund, your Divorce Order/Settlement MUST state that you do have a claim and the following should be specifically stipulated:
• The percentage that you are entitled to claim
• The name of the Fund (GEPF)
The non member has a choice between:
• Payment to be made to the non-member spouse’s own account
• Payment to be transferred to an approved external fund.
