Inheriting parent's pension

greenglide

Is it possible your mother's estate is due a widow's pension for the year she outlived him?

If you are referring to the state bereavement benefits (the old "widows pension" has been replaced by Bereavement Payment and Bereavement Benefits some years ago) these are only payable if the deceased partner was under State Pension age at the time of death - this is supposed to compensate for the loss of income.

patanne

Sorry no, I was referring to any employment pension he may have had, possibly through ill health retirement, as presumably he has been living on something, which of course could be savings. My other concerns with him dying abroad, which is why I mentioned debts, is that his accounts may still be open and could even have had direct debits going out for this time & if there was an overdraft facility there could be a problem.

greenglide

Has the fathers death been registered in the UK? If so then DWP and other government agencies should be aware, but if not anything could go wrong.

SplinterCell

anmarj wrote: »

State pension is only inheritable between spouses, and would of only paid out at state pension age had your mum reached that age before she died.

I didn't know this - completely new to the world of pensions. Thanks.

patanne wrote: »

A question to ask yourself could be - my father has not worked for several years, what has he been living on? Is it possible he took a pension early due to ill health? In which case it is unlikely there is anything available there. Have you checked on his bank accounts to see his ins & outs? You could try googling my lost bank account. Be aware that, unless you choose to do so, you are not responsible for his debts. Is it possible your mother's estate is due a widow's pension for the year she outlived him? Sorry lots of questions & I know no answers, but hopefully some routes for you to follow

I didn't get on well with my dad in his final years and as a result didn't speak much. I do know that he was in a joint claim for Employment and Support Allowance with my mum at the time of his death. I informed the DWP about his death and the appropiate changes were made to the claim. I presume this was what he lived on up until his death. He took all his personal documents with him when he went abroad. I have tried to ask his family over there, but was told that the documents went missing.
All I've got is an NI number and my parent's marriage certificate.
It could be possible that he may have drawn something out, but I doubt this would be possible as he was in receipt of ESA when he died.
Thank you anyway, your post has given me some things to think about. I think I just have to try and dig around.

greenglide wrote: »

Has the fathers death been registered in the UK? If so then DWP and other government agencies should be aware, but if not anything could go wrong.

Contacted DWP shortly after my dad's death since he was in a joint claim for Employment and Support Allowance. My mum also received some bereavement benefits, so I presume they are aware of his death.

Tiddlywinks

This drip feed of information is a bit tedious.

State pension - you will have no claim on your parents' state pensions.

Private pension - you need to establish if your parents were in pensions schemes with their employers or had a personal private pension plan. Use the website mentioned above to trace any policies BUT most plans (especially one taken out so long ago - given your father's recent years of not working) will not provide for payments to adult children.

Also, remember that you need to spend just as much time looking for debts owed by your parents as the estate needs to pay liabilities BEFORE anyone takes an inheritance.