LGPS death after retirement

loulou41

If you die after retirement a lump sum will be paid if you die and less than 10 yrs pension has been paid and you are under 75 at the date of death. I assume this will be paid to your named beneficiary. My query is if you are single then your pension dies with you as you do not have the same benefits of married couple e.g survivor benefits. Just curious! Thanks

Silvertabby

loulou41 wrote: »

If you die after retirement a lump sum will be paid if you die and less than 10 yrs pension has been paid and you are under 75 at the date of death. I assume this will be paid to your named beneficiary. My query is if you are single then your pension dies with you as you do not have the same benefits of married couple e.g survivor benefits. Just curious! Thanks

10 years guarantee for those who left the LGPS on or after 1 April 2008, 5 years for those who left before then. Critical difference for those who left and deferred their benefits under the old rules, even if they didn't start to draw their pension until after April 2008.

Yes, any death grant lump sum may be paid to anyone you care to nominate, but on-going pensions will only be paid to eligible dependents. That is way of all public sector pension schemes, and the lack of dependents in the case of X% of fund members is factored in to the affordability of the scheme. If the option of nominating anyone to receive survivor benefits for life were possible, then scheme contributions - both employer and employee - would have to be much greater than they are now. In the case of the LGPS, both sets of contributions were increased as part of an overall review of the scheme - which included the introduction of paying survivor pension benefits to eligible co-habiting (ie, unmarried) partners.

If it helps, public sector pension scheme members will 'get back' at least their own contributions during the guarantee period, so it's not as if they lose a great pot of money.