Legal name change?

[lise08]

Hi all :-)

My mum is a widow who receives a private company widows pension. If she remarries, does she have to change her surname, with banks etc, by law? Also would she lose her widows pension if she remarries?

Thanks in advance :-)

[boxtops]

I can't advise about the pension since that will depend on the terms of the pension scheme - but the answer to the first part of the question is No. When I remarried, I kept my current name on my employment records and with my bank accounts and credit cards. The tax office said they didn't care what I called myself, they identify me by my NI number.
I did change my name on other legal documents i.e. passport, travel insurance, car log book and car insurance, and medical and dental records because it seemed more convenient in terms of ID to do that - but everything else is still in my previous names.

[atalanta]

In the UK you can call yourself anything you want. Rumpelstiltskin if that appeals to you.
But you can't call yourself Marks, with your friend calling herself Spencer, and then set up a clothes shop together.

[arwyn]

lise08 You'r Mum needs to ask the company. Mine only ever ends when I Die.

[pink-kittens]

of course your mum will lose her widows pension if she remarries, she will no longer be a widow

No, she does not have to change her surname but if she is thinking of not doing so in order to fraudulently continue to (or try to continue to) claim her pension she is sorely mistaken

[Skyline D]

"But you can't call yourself Marks, with your friend calling herself Spencer, and then set up a clothes shop together."

Yes you can. You just can't have the "business" trade under the name Marks & Spencer because another business already uses it. ;-)

[joko]

she doesnt have to change her name at all...she can keep her old one