Mother's spouse pension - on her death, do offspring receive any benefits?

Rossco1962

Hi

My mother recently passed away. She was in receipt of a spouse's pension from Saint Gobain (my father passed away many years ago and was employed by this company). I informed the company about my mother's death and sent the requested Death Certificate to them. The follow up email from the company stated that "....there are no further benefits payable to or from Mrs xxxxx' estate and our file is now closed."

My question is would there be any benefits that myself and my brother should receive from this company, or, on my mother's death there is no more follow-up to this query?

Thanks in advance for any help

lisyloo

Are any of the offspring dependent either due to age or health?
If you are all healthy adults then the answer is almost certainly no.

Rossco1962

Thanks for the reply. No, not dependent on either - we both healthy and in our 50's. Just wondered if these companies have any obligation to the estate of the person who received the pension...

lisyloo

It depends what type of pension it was.
Broadly speaking there are two types.
One is like a pot of money that you withdraw from. In this case there could be money left at the end and conversely you could also run out of money if you live a long time. “Drawdown” started in 1995 so if he retired before then it wouldn’t have been an option.
The other type often called “defined benefit” guarantees to pay you until you die (never runs out) and provides benefits for dependents e.g. spouse, underage children and dependent adult children.
It sounds like he has the latter type and there would be no further benefits.

Rossco1962

Thanks lisyloo.......I would have to check the paperwork that we have to establish what it was. We are just tidying up our mother's financial stuff and wondered if there was any entitlement. Dad died in 1999, he had retired long before that. Subsequently, his pension was transferred to our Mum who received a monthly sum paid into her bank account...

TBagpuss

No, normally there is no responsibility to the estate.

Where a pension might pay out on death are:

- Where the person dies before they retire (death in service benefits)
- Where the person dies leaving minor children (but usually only where they were the pension holder, as opposed to recieveing a spouses pension)
- Where the pension holder had dependent children
- Where the pnsion is the modern 'draw down' arrangement and the holder has not yet drawn all of the capital.

So if your mum had dies when you or any of your siblings were still children, it is *possible* that the pension would then have been paid to your guardian for you, until you turned 18.

Silvertabby

It would be extremely unusual for there to be any ongoing entitlement in the circumstances you describe, so it's safe to say that the pension scheme are correct in saying that there are no further benefits due.

On the bright, side (particularly as this was a final salary scheme) if your dad had retired long before he died in 1999, and then your mum drew a widow's pension for 20 years, then the total amount of pension payments made to both of them would far exceed the amount of pension contributions paid by your father.

My condolences on the loss of your mum.

Rossco1962

Many thanks for all you help, you have cleared up something we were uncertain about. Thumbs up to all the forum members who contributed - much appreciated.