Widow's Pension

[allenlondon]

My wife and I are UK pensioners, living in the UK, married for decades, etc. If/when I die, does she automatically get a proportion of my state pension? Googling chucks up all sorts of conflicting answers.

[fiction-factory]

Depends what sort of pensions you get now. How long have you been a pensioner. Unless you have been pensioners for a long time I think pensions are paid to the individual not the couple so you will not get any of your spouse's state pension when she dies (and vice versa)

[woofgang]

not any more I think....I didn't and I was in the swathe of transition women who lost out. I would phone the pensions office and ask but I think the answer will be no unless they made special arrangements for those who are much older.

[Chinajan]

It depends. Are you both over state pension age? Do you both receive a state pension now? If your widow does not have her own full state pension the following applies:

Reached your SPA before 6 April 2016

When you die, some of your State Pension entitlements may pass to your widow, widower or surviving civil partner.

Basic State Pension - Your spouse or civil partner may be entitled to some basic state pension based on your National Insurance (NI) contributions but only if they have not already built up a full basic state pension from their own NI contributions record. When you die, your spouse or civil partner can apply for your National Insurance record to be used instead of their own, so this will only help them if your record is more complete than theirs. If you die while they are under state pension age, they will lose this right if they remarry or enter into a new civil partnership before they reach state pension age. Your spouse or civil partner may be entitled to any extra state pension you are entitled to if you put off claiming it when you reached state pension age.

[allenlondon]

Blimey.

(Thanks, but blimey).

They do not make it easy, do they? And some poor woman has got to wade through that murk when she is hardly at her best.

I think I’d better stay alive...

[bednobs]

I love the optimism in the first part of your post (if I die). :)

[hereIam]

All I know is that when my Dad died, my Mum automatically received a widow's pension. Both in their 80's at the time ..

[woofgang]

herIam, the widow's pension now is called bereavement allowance and only lasts a year. As I said in my earlier post the way to find out for sure is to phone the pensions service but be aware they can only tell you how the rules work now. As many of us know to our cost when the rules change all bets are off.