Death in service

innkyl

Is there any way that you can find out if death in service was paid out??

tacpot12

You could write to the HR department and ask. They will pass your request to the trustees of the scheme that insured the person who has died. They may be prepared to confirm that a death in service payment was made, if you can convince them that your were or should have been provided for by the deceased. They will not tell you who a payment was made to, and will probably tell you nothing else, so I'm not sure how knowing that a payment was made will help you. 

Marcon

innkyl said:

Is there any way that you can find out if death in service was paid out??

I'm sorry to 'answer' a question with a question (often annoys, I know) but could you be a bit more explicit about why you need to know. Do you believe you were a potential beneficiary? How long ago was the death?

If the DIS is provided under the same trust as the pension scheme itself (normally only applies to defined benefit schemes), the scheme accounts would normally show a payment coming in from the insurer (if it was insured, which is likely) and being paid out again, although they wouldn't ever show any details of the recipient.

If it's a standalone DIS scheme, annual accounts won't be produced, so it won't help.

innkyl

Hi, it was for my mum who passed 5 years ago, we received her pension form the company.  someone recently asked if we received death in service and I'm not sure!
Thanks for replying

Torry_Quine

It may well be that there was no death in service payment

tacpot12

Torry_Quine said:

It may well be that there was no death in service payment

Or that the Death In Service payment was rolled into a lump sum that was paid out without it being made clear how much of the lump sum was from the pension and how much was from the Death in Service element.

Marcon

innkyl said:

Hi, it was for my mum who passed 5 years ago, we received her pension form the company.  someone recently asked if we received death in service and I'm not sure!
Thanks for replying

Are you sure there was a death in service benefit provided by her employer?

Provided that she was actually in service (i.e. an employee) at the time of her death (people often overlook the fact that 'death in service' does mean just that), there's nothing to stop you e-mailing her former employer and saying that someone has raised the point and for your own peace of mind you'd like to clarify the position.