police pension

Faith177

All I know is the police pension has been the bane of my mums life since 1991 :mad:

somethingcorporate

Why?...........

Faith177

My mum became a widow in 1991 when my dad was killed in an accident. He was a Met police officer so was able to claim his pension.

Only thing is the amount of rules attached to it has meant that my mum has had to spend the last 22 years on her own.

The main pension rule for anyone widowed before 2001 is that they are not allow to re-marry or co-habitate with anyone or lose the pension.

Not just that she has been subjected to random spot checks to make sure she is obeying these rules. We had officers knocking at the door as late as 10-11pm sometimes.

They did bring in a relief payment when you received a one of payment to buy out of the pension to be able to have a life again. However they did not make this public knowledge until the closing date was a week away.

rpc

Faith177 wrote: »

The main pension rule for anyone widowed before 2001 is that they are not allow to re-marry or co-habitate with anyone or lose the pension.

This rules is there because the pension is intended to support a dependent spouse - it isn't the surviving spouses pension. When you remarry or cohabit, you have someone else to support you so the deceased no longer has to. Makes sense to me...

Faith177

Yes I understand that but why is it anyone widowed after 2001 no longer has that rule applied to them they can re-marry AND keep there pension.

Also how could my mum get involved with anyone with two small children knowing that if anything went wrong which it can in relationships she would be left with nothing and no way of supporting us as she was not entitled to benifits as she is not a single parent

Andy_L

Faith177 wrote: »

Yes I understand that but why is it anyone widowed after 2001 no longer has that rule applied to them they can re-marry AND keep there pension.

because "that is what the rules say". When the scheme was originally set up they made some assumptions about widows remarrying to calculate the cost to the employer to the scheme, plus I suspect that "back in those days" the assumptions was that a wife would be a "kept woman" & thus her new husband would look after her.

Changing the rules in 2001 to allow widows to keep the pension increased the cost to the employer & they chose not to backdate that change to reduce the cost increase (although there may have been some other changes to the scheme making it worse in other respects at the same time so possibly a swings & roundabouts situation).

Andy_L

Faith177 wrote: »

Also how could my mum get involved with anyone with two small children knowing that if anything went wrong which it can in relationships she would be left with nothing

Would it have stopped forever or would it have restarted on a subsequent divorce?

Faith177 wrote: »

and no way of supporting us as she was not entitled to benifits as she is not a single parent

Surely after a subsequent breakup she would be a single parent and thus entitled to benifits?

BlueCow1975

Faith, I really feel for your mum and that is a flaming ridiculous rule! (especially given that after 2001 it is not a problem).

Thanks for the clarification re: terms Andy, it had not occurred to me that his existing contributions are kept under the old rules.

I have managed to talk some sense into him re: the actual facts and he has now realised that pulling out of his pension would be the most monumental singularly stupid thing that he could do.

Wise words jamesd. We have concluded that we need to carefully consider our options re: longer term investments (? property but also need to look at other options as all this is new to me) but obviously that is going to require a commitment to balance spending now "v" future gain. We have some savings (intended for a new car and a conservatory - nice yes, essential no and given the current climate that money could be put to much better use). Will definitely need to keep adding to that pot and review our options for the future.

Faith177

Is suppose that does make sense

I think it just the injustice of it all (from a personal point of view) that my mum has to spend the rest of her life on her own

Faith177

Nope once it was stopped that was it stopped for good.

Hadn't thought of that side of the argument but I guess there would have been some loophole there normally is lol i.e we weren't the new bf's children ect

P.S Thanks Bluecow i think it's worst now because us kids live so far (600 miles) away now so i just feel sorry for her

Sorry for the mini rant lol