Survivor Spouse's Pension

Marcon

User123450 said:

Married for over 40 years. It's a Rolls Royce pension.

"Your late Father retired in XX before his normal retirement date in the scheme which was age 65. At age 65 the Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) is then implemented.

 

When a member retires before GMP payment age from deferred status, the pension put into payment reflects only the accrued GMP amount at date of leaving.  A GMP step-up is then provided at GMP payment age.

 

The statutory minimum spouse’s pension in respect of GMP for early retirements is that the pension payable is at least the widow(er)s GMP revalued to the date of death."

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I am still unsure why the 50% of the excess pension over GMP isn't paid.

I think that's the question you (or rather your mum) needs to ask the scheme. The RR scheme normally has a 50% spouse's pension, so if she's only receiving a pension of around £2,500-£,3000, and your dad's pension was £10K+ when he died, something doesn't feel right.

DRS1

Presumably the quoted words are from a reply you had from the scheme administrators (or L&G)?

Did they just ignore your question about the pre97 excess?  You should ask them again.

You may not have a copy of the rules lying around but is there a member's booklet or a letter setting out what benefits he is getting (eg when he started drawing the pension).  Maybe those would spell out the benefits on death?

If you cannot find anything you might say in your letter that you understand the benefit for the surviving spouse when a pensioner dies is 50% of the pre-commutation members pension with pension increases added on (and so should clearly include the pre97 excess).  Pre-commutation is only relevant where your father took a lump sum on retirement as well as the pension - so a pension of £5k pa might have been reduced to £4k pa plus a lump sum of say £15k.  The widows pension would be based on the £5k not the £4k.  It is the only description of the benefits I could find by googling it and it could easily be wrong - eg it could apply only to people who left after a certain date when your father left before.  It would obviously be much better if you could find something which clearly applied specifically to him.

xylophone

 It would obviously be much better if you could find something which clearly applied specifically to him.

 There might be something here assuming that the OP's mother has on line access.

https://www.rolls-roycepensions.com/Homepage

Here you'll find a collection of guides to help you manage your scheme membership. For our Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund members, additional guides tailored to your membership of the Fund can be found by logging into your account.

Was your father age 65 or over when he died?

Had he reached State Pension Age? If so, when did he reach it?

And your mother? Has she reached SPA and if so, when did she reach it?