State pension: post father in laws death

illbeurhuckleberry

Hello,

Wondering if someone could shed some light on the following.

My father in law passed away a few days ago at 84ys.

 He has a private pension which his wife will receive half which equates to £600. She receives a state pension of £122 weekly.
She has been told she is not entitled to part of her husband’s state  pension as this is means tested.
is this true?

She is 79 yrs old and having read other forums the above may be incorrect.

Would really appreciate some suggestions. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

illbeurhuckleberry said:

Hello,

Wondering if someone could shed some light on the following.

My father in law passed away a few days ago at 84ys.

 He has a private pension which his wife will receive half which equates to £600. She receives a state pension of £122 weekly.
She has been told she is not entitled to part of her husband’s state  pension as this is means tested.
is this true?

She is 79 yrs old and having read other forums the above may be incorrect.

Would really appreciate some suggestions. 

Who told her that 🤔

Has she been in touch with DWP?  Ultimately they are responsible for determining what State Pension is due and then paying it.  Not some random person!

MarzipanCrumble

No.  I 'inherited' part of my deceased husband's state pension and I am a tax payer and have savings over £23k.
https://www.gov.uk/additional-state-pension/inheriting

Obviously any additional income may incurr income tax...........

molerat

The state pension and any inheriting of a spouse entitlement is not means tested, it is though taxable income.  Any other benefits may be means tested.

As they were both pre 2016 pensioners DWP should top her basic pension up to the full £169.50 based on his record plus a portion, likely around 50%, of any additional pension he received.

german_keeper

My FIL passed away last December and MIL inherited a large chunk of his SP, she couldn't believe it, thought she was going to be a pauper.

When you register the death they should give you a phone number and if I remember correctly a reference number or code or something and you then just phone Tell Us Once. The wheels are then set in motion for the State Pension among other things. We were really impressed, maybe very lucky I don't know, SP was all sorted within a week or so.

Sarahspangles

illbeurhuckleberry said:

Hello,

Wondering if someone could shed some light on the following.

My father in law passed away a few days ago at 84ys.

 He has a private pension which his wife will receive half which equates to £600. She receives a state pension of £122 weekly.
She has been told she is not entitled to part of her husband’s state  pension as this is means tested.
is this true?

She is 79 yrs old and having read other forums the above may be incorrect.

Would really appreciate some suggestions. 

When my FIL passed away this was sorted automatically and pretty quickly by the DWP, MIL got a letter and her payments into their account rose around the same time.

She may pay tax, and may not qualify for pension credit, but she is likely to be better off.

najan49

Similar to the above, my dad died 3 months ago. We used the “tell us once” service after registering the death, and DWP got in touch with my mum a week or two later to tell her how much her pension would increase to.

illbeurhuckleberry

Thanks all. I’ll pass on the tell us once and see what happens.
My mother in law told me she was ten pounds over the limit to qualify for her husband’s state pension. I didn’t think to ask who told her that. It’s all been a bit of a haze navigating death admin.

sheramber

Is she confused with Pension Credit.

Contact the Pension Service for advice

https://www.gov.uk/contact-pension-service

Sarahspangles

illbeurhuckleberry said:

Thanks all. I’ll pass on the tell us once and see what happens.
My mother in law told me she was ten pounds over the limit to qualify for her husband’s state pension. I didn’t think to ask who told her that. It’s all been a bit of a haze navigating death admin.

There is a scenario where being just slightly over the threshold for pension credit actually leaves you worse off because PC triggers payment of other benefits like winter fuel allowance.

But it sounds like she’s more comfortably off than that if she’s also receiving a widow’s pension from a final salary scheme.

xylophone

Both were on the old state pension scheme (referred to in link  below as "current" as the paper was issued in advance of introduction of NSP).


Read Annex A here (p 21 onwards.)

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

27.In every instance where the Dependant reaches SPa in the current system and the Contributor reaches SPa in the current system as well, then the rules will continue to operate as per the current system, which is detailed in Annex A.

Don't confuse eligibility for Pension Credit with eligibility to inherit SP ( or part thereof) from a spouse.