Is my fathers estranged wife entitled to claim his pension

nads75

Hello,
My father recently passed away leaving no will. He was 61 years old and no yet in receipt of a pension, but was claimng pension credit and out of work. His wife and he split up nearly 2 yrs ago now and this has left him bankrupt and finding out she had taken a lot of debt out in his name. They had their house repossesed and she had access to his mothers savings account which we have since found out she cleared out of £20,000. He was in the process of charging her via a soliciter regarding fraud and the theft of the monies (although she had put herself as a named person on the account so will obviously get away with it) but it was obvious that they were not freindly etc.
Ive now read that when its time for his pension to be issued, she as his wife (they had not yet began divorce proceedings) will be able to claim some or all of that pension?
Obviously both myself and my two siblings (not to mention the whole family) would be appaled if she could in fact do this, so im wondering if there is any was that i can prevent this from happening (my dad did not have a will) I am the executer of his estate. </SPAN>

dunstonh

ve now read that when its time for his pension to be issued, she as his wife (they had not yet began divorce proceedings) will be able to claim some or all of that pension?

As spouse, she is entitled to any spouse benefits that the pension may offer.

Pensions are not subject to a Will. You could put the position to the trustees of the pension scheme as they do have the final say. However, it really would depend on the type of pension, the scheme rules and whether the pension was in payment yet or not as to whether it will make a difference or not.

nads75

Hiya, its just a state pension.

chesky369

Then I'm afraid a state pension dies with the person.

dzug1

chesky369 wrote: »

Then I'm afraid a state pension dies with the person.

BUT a widow can be entitled to a pension based on her late husband's contributions. Maybe not 'his' pension as such, but a direct spin off from it.

Sixtails

As dzug1 said, a widow can get an increase on her late husbands contributions. The increase will depend on how many years your father had paid contributions, how much her pension is & how long they have been married, amongst other things.

Even if your father & his wife were divorced, she may still have been able to get an increase based on his contributions. The increase is looked into for divorcees & widows.

There's no way for you to stop this increase, the only way the increase isn't applied is if the person claiming the pension says they don't want to look into it (obviously this doesn't happen often). You won't know that it's happened if she does get the increase, no one other than the customer will ever be told about any increase applied.

However there is 1 thing that will stop her getting an increase - if she gets remarried before she claims her state pension, she is no longer entitled to claim the increase as she will be treated as married rather than widowed.