State pension - widow's eligibility after husband's death?

br1anst0rm

It is difficult to find a thread title which accurately describes the question on which I seek advice.  In this context - I'm the husband, and I'm not yet dead!  I will try to spell out the essential facts.

I  am 73.  My wife is 72 (born Nov 1951).  We are both retired and in the UK.  I had a full career as a civil servant and receive a defined-benefit pension.  I also paid sufficient NI contributions to qualify for a normal state pension.  I deferred its payment for a few years after reaching state retirement pension age, but am now receiving that state pension as well as my civil service pension.

While always being deemed a UK resident and taxpayer, and paid a salary in UK, I worked as a British government servant overseas for much of our working lives.  My wife accompanied me and had short-term local employment in some places.  But she was paid locally, not liable for UK tax, and did not pay NI contributions while we were abroad.  We have no children, so she was not credited with any NI years in respect of Child Benefit or Home Responsibilities.  She reached state pension age on 6 May 2013, but heard nothing from the DWP regarding a pension. When we looked into her situation and sought clarification from the DWP, it emerged that she had only 13 qualifying years of NI contributions (essentially from jobs before we married and some short-term work during periods when we were based in the UK between overseas assignments). 

So the DWP advised that she was eligible for just 13/30ths of the basic state pension and that - as she had not reached the threshold of 20 NI qualifying years - she could not make sufficient additional NI contributions or payments to increase the level of her state pension.

However.... it appeared that my (the husband's) full NI contribution record could be used to boost her state pension to 18/30ths of the basic state pension amount.  So - after the delay while her entitlement or options were clarified, and deferral for a year or two, she claimed and has been receiving this 18/30ths (ie 60%) of the basic state pension since 2019.

So much for the background.  We are of course getting older, so have to think about what action to take before we eventually pass away.  Of course neither of us knows who will go first!  There is a long list of tasks still to be tackled:  wills(!!), Powers of Attorney, and very probably some work on inheritance planning.

But the specific question in this post is a simple one.  If I, as the husband, die first, I believe (but am checking) that my wife/widow will continue to receive a proportion of my Civil Service employment pension - I think it is 60%.  The question is - after I die, will she also continue to qualify as she does now, but as my widow, for that 18/30ths of the state pension based on my NI contribution record?  Or does my NI record and her entitlement to a pension payment lapse and cease on my demise?

sammyjammy

I believe the civil service pension is 50% for widows.  She will potentially inherit some of your pension if you die first, it won't be based on contributions though and won't top her up to a full pension.

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/inheriting-or-increasing-state-pension-from-a-spouse-or-civil-partner#:~:text=You may inherit part of,civil partnership when they died

MikeJXE

Not sure but my story might help

I'm 83 my wife past 11 years ago, she only worked from 1960 to 1969 so 9 years

She obviously only had a small pension when she died

I didn't claim it as I didn't know I could 

Last year DWP contacted me to say I was going to receive back pay for the last 11 years amounting to £2700 and I would also receive an increase in my SP

xylophone

Both you and your spouse are on the old state pension scheme.

See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6338773/inheritance-of-additional-state-pension   re the effect of your COD.

Your wife appears to   have only a  Cat B (L) at the moment. 

On your death, she should benefit as described p1 here   ( substituted Cat A).

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a758e27e5274a6faebebd94/derived-inherited-entitlement.pdf

Read Annex A (p 21 onwards) for more detail of the old scheme.

Keep_pedalling

br1anst0rm said:

We are of course getting older, so have to think about what action to take before we eventually pass away.  Of course neither of us knows who will go first!  There is a long list of tasks still to be tackled:  wills(!!), Powers of Attorney, and very probably some work on inheritance planning.

You really need to prioritise the first two things on that list. You have already left both those tasks far longer than you should have done, do not put them off any longer.

Tightboy

Keep_pedalling said:

You really need to prioritise the first two things on that list. You have already left both those tasks far longer than you should have done, do not put them off any longer.

Yep, I would certainly agree with that statement. We started our LPAs last March and it took until November to get it done! 8 months.