Pension after death?

Bat125

And how would we go about persuingvthis?

Silvertabby

It's very unlikely that your mum would receive anything, as they were divorced when your dad died.  And his pension would only be classed as a matrimonial asset if it had been taken into account as part of the actual divorce proceedings.

Aretnap

You mention the pension protection fund. If they were involved then it would definitely have been a defined benefit pension scheme, not a defined contribution scheme. In which case there was never a defined pot of money which was his, to be divided among his relatives. Instead there was a defined list of benefits which the scheme would provide - a regular income to him for life, and probably payments to a surviving spouse and dependant children (if any). If he died before retirement age and had no dependants then there may have been no benefits payable to anyone.

That's the nature of these schemes - some people live to a hundred and draw lots of money from them over 40 years of retirement, other people die young and draw little or nothing. In essence the contributions of the latter group subsidise the pensions of the former group - and the employer subsidises both. For most people they are a very valuable benefit as they provide certainty and mean that they never have to worry about running out of money in retirement, though I appreciate it might not feel like that if you are one of the unlucky people who die young.

Marcon

Bat125 said:

I have found out some more info regarding my late father’s pension. 

When my father died it was being assessed by the pensions protection fund and subsequently was transferred to them. 

They say that because my father died during the assessment period they have no records passed onto them from the original provider? This can’t be right?

It can and will be if he was divorced and had no children who were eligible for 'children's pensions'. 

His pension can’t just disappear and they must have records of passed members? Anyways… this can be sorted hopefully. They are standing by that we as non dependents are not entitled to it even with an expression of wish form. 

Those were the rules of the scheme, so the EOW is of no relevance.

But a solicitor has said my mother, his ex wife previously divorced, might have a claim to it? Can that be right? Even though they were divorced several years before he died? Apparently it’s classed as a matrimonial asset…

Clearly not a solicitor who knows much about pensions!

Not sure how likely this is but is it worth perusing? 

I'm afraid it isn't worth pursuing - there is nothing due to you or your brothers, given the nature of the scheme.

Bat125

How do you explain this then?:

Bat125

If your marital status was ‘divorced’ when you reached state pension age, you may be able to benefit from the National Insurance Contributions of your ex husband. (In the event that you married more than once, it would be the NI Contributions of your ‘most recent’ ex husband which would be relevant). 

Bat125

And that’s from the gov website. 

Let alone a massive work place pension. 

noitsnotme

Bat125 said:

If your marital status was ‘divorced’ when you reached state pension age, you may be able to benefit from the National Insurance Contributions of your ex husband. (In the event that you married more than once, it would be the NI Contributions of your ‘most recent’ ex husband which would be relevant). 

That relates to the State Pension. It has nothing to do with a company DB pension.

jem16

Bat125 said:

If your marital status was ‘divorced’ when you reached state pension age, you may be able to benefit from the National Insurance Contributions of your ex husband. (In the event that you married more than once, it would be the NI Contributions of your ‘most recent’ ex husband which would be relevant). 

State Pension rules have nothing whatsoever to do with the rules of a private pension scheme. Even those rules you quote for the state pension are pre 6th April 2016.

bolwin1

Bat125 said:

If your marital status was ‘divorced’ when you reached state pension age, you may be able to benefit from the National Insurance Contributions of your ex husband. (In the event that you married more than once, it would be the NI Contributions of your ‘most recent’ ex husband which would be relevant). 

Completely unrelated - national insurance contributions are (almost) nothing to do with a nothing to do with a "massive work place pension". The gov website is referring to the state pension.