Army pension for widow

Eliza_2

Dear all

My mother, who is 85 is convinced she should be getting more pension than she does. The story is that my father was an army officer for 30 years (his first career was as a teacher) until he retired in around 1985 at the age of 55. His final salary was about £26k and he received a gratuity (presumably the same as the lump sum?) plus a monthly pension. He then died in 2001. My mother receives about £16000 per annum, including her state pension which presumably is about £6000 a year, so she gets £10k a year army pension. (I've asked her to send me all the paperwork to check this over, but I think this is near enough right)

She keeps hearing things on the news about the average amount needed to live on and is sure she should have more, this is also emotionally tied up a bit with my father's memory, she is sure he would have left her very well provided for, so is surprised she doesn't get more. I've explained about how they calculate these unhelpful averages, but not sure she's convinced. She also knows that people currently working at his rank now earn around £80k a year, and doesn't understand how the pension hasn't gone up proportionately as these salaries have. I've tried to explain that pensions are index linked to cost of living type indices (no need to overcomplicate it!) but that salaries can shoot up if there's a pay review or pay rise, as well as annual increments and cost of living increases so there would never be a comparison.

But she's really not convinced! I've had a look at the army pensions website and seem to go round in circles, when her paper work arrives - if she can find it - I will ring them and try to get a full breakdown and statement.

She also thinks she shouldn't be taxed on it, I've tried to explain that she is taxed on the total of her income, including the interest from various not insubstantial pots of savings (her nursing home fund!) and other stuff, and that her pension isn't being singled out for taxing. She isn't convinced by this either.

Obviously once this paperwork arrives I can try to clarify it all for her, until then can anyone tell me if the stuff I've explained to her is actually correct, and does anyone know how army widow's pensions are calculated? I know she will be on the phone wanting to know the minute her papers arrive here in the post so would like to give it all a bit of thought beforehand.

Thanks for any advice, sorry to ramble on!

Liz

danlojo

http://www.armywidows.org.uk/

Try this site they may help.



Also found this:
There are two rates of War Widow’s Pension. The higher rate may be paid if:

You are over forty years old
You are under forty years old but are entitled to extra money for your children
You are under forty years old but unable to support yourself financially without extra assistance

Other qualifying widows or widowers will be paid the lower rate of War Widow’s Pension until they reach age forty. The amount of War Widow’s Pension you will be entitled to will also depend on the rank that your late partner had attained when they died. Currently War Widow’s Pension for the tax year 2008/2009 is set at:


Rank of Lieutenant-Colonel (Army) or above:

Between £5,909 and £6,182 a year, depending on late partner’s rank
Rank of Officer or above:

Higher Rate – between £5,808 and £5,854 a year, depending on late partner’s rank
Lower Rate – between £1,594 and £2,033 a year, depending on late partner’s rank
Other ranks:

Higher Rate – £110.05 a week
Lower Rate – £26.36 a week

Eliza_2

danlojo wrote: »

http://www.armywidows.org.uk/

Try this site they may help.



Also found this:
There are two rates of War Widow’s Pension. k

Thank you for the link to that website, I hadn't found that. I can see where she's maybe got confused, it says she's entitled to 50% of what his pension entitlement was. She seems to think she should have half of his salary when he retired, not half of his pension entitlement. So now I need to find out what that was! I don't think she counts as a war widow as his death was non-attributable.

Thanks again, a few steps forward....

Liz

Loughton_Monkey

It is fairly universal that (a) pension amounts are considerably less than Final Salary - especially when the pension comes from more than one source, and (b) upon death of the pensioner, a spouse pension of 50% is paid.

Obviously, though, it's worth checking all avenues. But I would imagine the odds are that she is being paid the right amounts.