Pensions paid only to Legal Spouse

tonynw

When do you think things might change regarding pension companies paying pensions to partners that have lost a loved one. At the moment a lot of pensions are only paid to a legal spouse. So you can be married for a couple of days and then seperate but when your legal partner dies you get a % of their pension but if you have lived together you get nothing.
If you have lived together for 30 or 40 years it counts for nothing. Why should you be forced to get married to be able to get your pension paid to a loved one.

QrizB

tonynw said:

When do you think things might change ...

Never say never, but "a very long time" would be my answer.

tonynw said:

If you have lived together for 30 or 40 years it counts for nothing. Why should you be forced to get married to be able to get your pension paid to a loved one.

You don't have to be married, you could have a civil partnership.

https://blanchardslaw.co.uk/civil-partnership-vs-marriage-which-is-right-for-you/

dunstonh

When do you think things might change regarding pension companies paying pensions to partners that have lost a loved one.

No expectation it will.  I don't see why it should either as it would increase fraud and costs on others.

 At the moment a lot of pensions are only paid to a legal spouse. 

Not quite.   They are paid to a spouse, any spouse or civil partner.   

If you have lived together for 30 or 40 years it counts for nothing. Why should you be forced to get married to be able to get your pension paid to a loved one.

You don't have to get married.  You can enter into a civil partnership.  Its not just pensions but a range of things where being married or a civil partnership are beneficial.   Tax in particular.

Silvertabby

Marriage (or civil partnership) is so much more than just a piece of paper.  

flaneurs_lobster

Silvertabby said:

Marriage (or civil partnership) is so much more than just a piece of paper.  

Marriage (or civil partnership) CAN BE so much more than just a piece of paper, if both partners wish it to be so.

QrizB

OP you had a similar thread earlier this year:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6416766/pension-payments-after-death

DullGreyGuy

tonynw said:

When do you think things might change regarding pension companies paying pensions to partners that have lost a loved one. At the moment a lot of pensions are only paid to a legal spouse. So you can be married for a couple of days and then seperate but when your legal partner dies you get a % of their pension but if you have lived together you get nothing.
If you have lived together for 30 or 40 years it counts for nothing. Why should you be forced to get married to be able to get your pension paid to a loved one.

How about sisters and brothers that spend their whole life living together (obviously in a non-romantic way)... do you think they should get the spousal pension?

It ultimately comes down to the terms of the pension scheme and so the short answer is, no time soon. As others have pointed out you can go for a Civil Partnership if you have some moral issue with marrying and all pensions do have to considered civil partners the same as spouses. 

At the end of the day pensions can be as broad or narrow as they want really... it just impacts the actuarial assumptions when calculating how much money is needed to fund the pension and therefore what the contributions need to be. 

If you buy an annuity with your DC pot certainly some of those will payout to someone you lived with as if they were your spouse, subject to appropriate evidence, but in theory you'll get less pension than if it had a much tighter definition for second life benefits. 

Emmia

I think this should also encourage people to formalise their relationship status - civil partnerships are available and marriage doesn't have to involve £20k on a blow out party. And if you separate permanently then you should divorce properly, and not retain the link.

Pension providers need something to prove that a survivor pension should go to person X rather than person Y which is what a marriage or civil partnership certificate provides - if someone has married, separated, got into another long relationship but never divorced their spouse... then I can see it could be seen as unfair if the spouse gets the lot, but those are the rules, and the rules are known.

Beddie

It's yet another area where single people with no dependents are punished financially. We should be able to forego all the spouses pension etc. and get a higher pension while alive. It's a set of dinosaur rules from when women didn't work and/or build up a pension once they had kids.

Marcon

tonynw said:

When do you think things might change regarding pension companies paying pensions to partners that have lost a loved one. At the moment a lot of pensions are only paid to a legal spouse. So you can be married for a couple of days and then seperate but when your legal partner dies you get a % of their pension but if you have lived together you get nothing.
If you have lived together for 30 or 40 years it counts for nothing. Why should you be forced to get married to be able to get your pension paid to a loved one.

As per my answer when you asked the same question in January:

Depends on the pension scheme. Many DB schemes will pay to an unmarried partner living in a relationship 'akin to marriage' or where there is 'mutual financial dependency'. If your scheme doesn't do that, it's entirely up to you to decide whether or not to marry your long term partner - or to look at the possibility of transferring out to a DC arrangement. It's called freedom of choice.

With DC arrangements, it's up to the individual member to decide what death benefits should be 'bought' with their pot (if buying an annuity), or to whom any remaining funds should be paid if they were in drawdown at the time of death, or hadn't started to access their pot.

NlghtOwl

Agree with Marcon, I believe DB pension trustees will take expression of wishes into account for a partner living with the deceased.
It probably needs this individual approach as there is a difference between an unmarried partner who has been living with the deceased for 10 years compared to one who has just moved in a few weeks ago. That’s where the ‘piece of paper’ makes the distinction clear, but not as finite as it once was.