Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010

Financial compensation orders.

120.— (1) If the court is of the view that one of the reasons set out in subsection (2) exists, the court, on application to it in that behalf by either of the civil partners, during the lifetime of either of the civil partners, may make, on granting a decree of dissolution or at any time after granting it, one or more of the following orders:

(a) an order requiring the other civil partner to effect a policy of life insurance for the benefit of the applicant civil partner;

(b) an order requiring the other civil partner to assign to the applicant the whole or a specified part of the interest in a policy of life insurance that he or she has effected or that both of the civil partners have effected; and

(c) an order requiring the other civil partner to make or to continue to make to the person by whom a policy of life insurance is or was issued the payments which he or she or both of the civil partners is or are required to make under the terms of the policy.

(2) The reasons referred to in subsection (1) are:

(a) the financial security of the applicant can be provided for if the order is made; and

(b) the forfeiture by the applicant of the opportunity of acquiring a benefit (for example a benefit under a pension scheme) by reason of the decree of dissolution can be compensated wholly or partly by making the order.

(3) The court may make an order under subsection (1) in addition to or in substitution in whole or in part for orders under sections 117 , 118 , 119 or 121 and, in deciding whether or not to make the order, the court shall have regard to whether proper provision, having regard to the circumstances, exists, or can be made, for the civil partner concerned by orders under those sections.

(4) An order made under subsection (1) ceases to have effect on the entry into a new civil partnership, marriage or death of the applicant.

(5) The court shall not make an order under this section in favour of a civil partner who has entered into a new civil partnership or has married.

(6) An order under section 131 in relation to an order made under subsection (1) (a) or (b) may make the provision that the court considers appropriate in relation to the disposal of—

(a) an amount representing any accumulated value of the insurance policy effected pursuant to the order under subsection (1) (a), or

(b) the interest or part of the interest to which the order under subsection (1) (b) relates.