Claim deferred state pension of deceased spouse

barryfaetheus

Hello, My mother, who is currently 63, previously lived in the UK for about 20 years. Although she never undertook paid work there, my father was working that entire time, so he made plenty of NI contributions. He took early retirement and went back to his home country in the early 2000s.

Although he was receiving an NHS pension in the home country, I am fairly sure he never claimed his state pension on turning 65. He died earlier this year aged about 72, and they were still legally married though living apart when he died.

I understand that while she is not entitled to a state pension of her own (due to the changes in the pension rules for people born in the 50s), she can claim a lump sum for the state pension which my father neglected to claim, accrued thru his death. But she first has to reach pensionable age herself (66 for her I believe).

Does this sound right? Any insight about how she would go about making that claim? It was not very apparent from reading online. She does have an NI number, but since she is here in the US, it may be a bit more complex. Is there any possibility to get it paid out sooner, since the payable amount won't change anyway?

TIA

Thrugelmir

Who is handling the administration of your late fathers estate?

Marcon

Start here: https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre

p00hsticks

According to this link

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/inheriting-or-increasing-state-pension-from-a-spouse-or-civil-partnerthen it sounds as if she may fall into this category, if your father did indeed defer his pension.

Inheriting extra State Pension or a lump sum

You may inherit part of or all of your partner’s extra State Pension or lump sum if:

• they died while they were deferring their State Pension (before claiming) or they had started claiming it after deferring
• they reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016
• you were married or in the civil partnership when they died

I'd suggest she starts by contacting the International Pension Centre with the first step being to ascertain if your father did claim his pension or defer it.

https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre

You can send them a secure message via this link

https://secure.dwp.gov.uk/ipc/personal-details

although it may take a while to get a response.

Edit: I forgot to add that it would also be worth asking at the same time whether she is entitled to some form of pension in her own right - if she was bringing up children then she may have built up NI credits on her own account.

barryfaetheus

Thrugelmir said:

Who is handling the administration of your late fathers estate?

There is a fairly useless lawyer in my father's home country, but I wouldn't rely on that person to interact with the UK pensions agency.  He had few remaining assets, and we were estranged from him, so there really isn't anything we're going to worry about. The NHS pensions were informed of his passing right away, and so they stopped paying out.

barryfaetheus

Thank you for all the responses. I did actually send a message to the International Pension Centre a while ago, but never got a response, nor could I reach them by phone. I was planning to wait until she reaches pensionable age, but I guess there is no harm in trying again now. 

GunJack

barryfaetheus said:

Thrugelmir said:

Who is handling the administration of your late fathers estate?

There is a fairly useless lawyer in my father's home country, but I wouldn't rely on that person to interact with the UK pensions agency.  He had few remaining assets, and we were estranged from him, so there really isn't anything we're going to worry about. The NHS pensions were informed of his passing right away, and so they stopped paying out.

Are they not paying a survivor's pension? Normally half of the pension in payment if they are still legally married, or had he changed the beneficiary to someone else?

xylophone

The NHS pensions were informed of his passing right away, and so they stopped paying out.

No pension for his widow? Have you checked?

I understand that while she is not entitled to a state pension of her own (due to the changes in the pension rules for people born in the 50s), 

Has she tried to obtain a state pension forecast? 

https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre

She could always complete the form and make an enquiry concerning your father 's pension and post to the address above?