Advice - death 3 months after retiring but no payout

monkeysrule

Hi, I was hoping someone could help as I've searched a few times on the subject of pensions and it blows my mind every time.

my dad died a few years ago 3 months after he turned 65 and started to collect his pension from the teachers pension. He had worked all his life and had always paid into a private pension as he was self employed, but in his last years he was a lecturer at a college (hence he transferred it to the teachers pension). He retired at 65 and I could se he was getting a pension but he never received a lump sum. His pension pot must of had a reasonable amount paid into it considering he was doing this over 45 years, but when I rung up teachers pension they said unless I was a child or my dad was married then they do not pay out anything. For over 45 years of payments, my dad received only about £1000.

I don't see the point of a pension why not just invest the money yourself at least it's yours

Anyway is this true that despite him having a reasonable sized pension pot because he was not married or had young children then his pension pots disappears?

Thanks

Silvertabby

My sympathies.

It's true that TPS (and all other public sector pensions) will only pay ongoing survivor's pensions to a spouse/eligible partner and/or eligible children - but there is also a one-off lump sum (called the death grant) payable to nominated beneficiaries in the event of death before or shortly after retirement.

You say that your dad died a few years ago - did you (or his nominated beneficiary) receive this one-off payment?

monkeysrule

Thanks for replying, I would be his beneficiary but there was no lump sum paid ever.
It was in 2013 he died and it wasn't something that concerned me at the time, but now time has passed I've just wondered if this is right. If it is it seems pointless getting a pension

CapricornLass

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles


I know its a long shot, but do you still have any of the paperwork relating to your dad's pension? It should say there if a lump sum was payable at the time of his death, and under what circumstances.

Alexland

monkeysrule wrote: »

If it is it seems pointless getting a pension

It might have been fairly pointless for your poor dad but on average people draw their defined benefit pensions up to the average life expectancy for a pensioner. For all those that do not draw for long there will be others that draw out much more than they every contributed even after accounting for inflation and growth.

Definitely worth investigating if his beneficiaries were due a death grant.

https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/members/once-retired/death-benefits.aspx

Alex

monkeysrule

Hi, I do have his stuff and there is even a booklet with terms, I read about the death grant and that seemed like it should apply, but tbh I find pensions very confusing and difficult to understand exactly what is what. I wondered if there was service that could help me, pensions are the most confusing thing

Alexland

Try reading the above TPS webpage and contacting them.

monkeysrule

Thank you so much! looking at this website it seems like there should have been a death grant.

At the time I didn't really know what I was doing I just wanted to sort out my dads affairs but wasn't really thinking. I just believed what the person told me when I rung up to tell them he had died. Emotionally I wasn't in the frame of mind to question anything.

I hope I'm not too late as it was nearly 5 years ago now

Alexland

Just be aware the terms of the death grant may have changed in recent years but if you have the scheme booklet you might be able to compare.

I am surprised it wasn't automatically considered at the time the scheme stopped making payments.

Alex

monkeysrule

I do have some of his paperwork including the scheme booklet. I'm going to try and call them tmw and see what they say. Thank you for your help everyone I feel better informed

Alexland

Please let us know how you get on.