Death in service lump sum

Mousey66

Hi everyone.
My husband sadly passed away in June 2024 whilst still employed. He had a works pension scheme which he filled an expression of wish form for his pension to be paid to me in the event of his death. Since July 2024 I have filled out and sent forms back to them, along with proof of my husband myself and of our marriage. They have been tediously slow in providing information back to me I have on many occasions had to ring them to find out where it was all up to. I really could have done without it as I was and still am grieving the loss of my husband. On the form I returned to them with information they had requested I had to declare any direct family members. My husband had an older brother and a daughter who is in her mid 20s. My husband didn’t want his daughter to receive any monies from the estate he left or his pension, hence why I was named on his will, which was invalid as we married after he’d made it out, so his estate went to me as his wife anyway, and why I was named only on the expression of wish form. So just before Christmas I received an email stating that the trustees had decided the payment would be made to me only. However in January his daughter also returned forms they had sent her, I only found this out because she messaged me for information regarding her Dad which she needed to fill out the forms. So because of this I received an email today from them stating that I will now receive a part payment, requesting I send them a bank statement with the same details of the ones on the form I sent them originally. I feel this is very unfair in the circumstances as they have gone against my husbands wishes. 

Does anyone know if it’s worth me complaining to the pensions ombudsman regarding this decision? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.Thank you.

IamWood

The pension provider should have the named beneficiaries by your late husband.

Sorry for your loss and his daughter.

Flugelhorn

I think I would be concerned that the daughter told the pension trustees that she was being financially supported by your husband - seems odd to pay out to a mid 20s child otherwise

p00hsticks

I'm sorry for your loss. 

Your post title is 'Death In service lump sum' but the text itself refers to A 'Works Pension'. Can you please clarify which it is as they are separate things ?

Perhaps you husband filled in an Expression of Wish for one but not the other, in which case the trustees would need to establish the closest relatives and make a decision on who the money should go to and how it should be split. 

IamWood

I named my sons in 20s and wife as my pension/life insurance beneficiaries. In the unfortunate event if I die, my son's will have their shares.

Cobbler_tone

It sounds like a really stressful situation, especially dealing with the grief of losing your husband.
I am assuming (from your post) that she is not your biological daughter but I hope you have a relationship with her.

It comes down to the Trustee's of the scheme. If she is in her mid-20's, it is unlikely that the scheme would outline support directly solely due to her being his daughter. 
I would personally seek to obtain rationale from the Trustee's for their decision making, based on the fact of you being married and the sole beneficiary on the expression of wish form. Then (if relevant) ask for their complaints procedure if you don't agree with it. In most walks of life it is always best (from a process perspective) to follow everything in place before escalating.

I am assuming you don't know what his daughter wrote to them and there must have been something for them to change their decision from following the expression of wish form and also being his wife.

The will shouldn't come into it, unless of course his daughter has used this in her application?

The most surprising thing for me is the amount of time it took to get to the decision to pay you the money (originally), so not sure if there is any missing information. In my business, our provider will settle straight forward death in service payments in a matter of weeks. We would also lead this process and wouldn't expect a close family member of an employee to have to battle with the provider for information. Maybe we are just a good and caring employer.

I hope you at least get some answers, although you may not be happy or agree with them and could be in for a lengthy and difficult 'battle'. All the best.

Flugelhorn

IamWood said:

I named my sons in 20s and wife as my pension/life insurance beneficiaries. In the unfortunate event if I die, my son's will have their shares.

you have expressed your wishes, it is up to the trustees if they agree with this. Decades ago DH was filling in one of these with our FA at the time and queried that the decision was ultimately up to the trustees. It was pointed out that if he had a dependent spouse and children, but  nominated the "floozy up the road" then the trustees might go against his wishes.

I think this control by the trustees also keeps the money outside of your estate 

Lemon_dr1zzle

It does seem very odd and not what would happen in the scheme I work for. I would ask the Trustees for their reasoning. 

Silvertabby

Lemon_dr1zzle said:

It does seem very odd and not what would happen in the scheme I work for. I would ask the Trustees for their reasoning. 

It sounds like the daughter has claimed that she had an element of financial dependancy.  Assuming that the nomination form is recent, and that the (legally married) wife is the beneficiary of a widow's pension, the LGPS I worked for would have paid the lump sum to the wife without any further investigation.

Marcon

Cobbler_tone said:

The most surprising thing for me is the amount of time it took to get to the decision to pay you the money (originally), so not sure if there is any missing information. In my business, our provider will settle straight forward death in service payments in a matter of weeks. We would also lead this process and wouldn't expect a close family member of an employee to have to battle with the provider for information. Maybe we are just a good and caring employer.

It's often much easier for trustees to decide what to do with a death in service (DIS) payment as opposed to the providers of a workplace pension, simply because an individual is by definition working for an employer at the time they die, and personal information is usually (not always) easier to come by. The DIS benefit is almost invariably insured with the trustees or employer as the beneficiary - so they make the claim on the insurer, and it's the trustees who then decide where the payment goes. 

The provider of the workplace pension usually has no such link to help them, especially if it is some sort of group personal pension or similar.

p00hsticks said:

I'm sorry for your loss. 

Your post title is 'Death In service lump sum' but the text itself refers to A 'Works Pension'. Can you please clarify which it is as they are separate things ?

Perhaps you husband filled in an Expression of Wish for one but not the other, in which case the trustees would need to establish the closest relatives and make a decision on who the money should go to and how it should be split. 

I think this has hit the nail on the head. 

A defined benefit pension scheme will have clear rules about who gets what on the death of a member, but it sounds as if OP's husband had a defined contribution pension scheme. The lengthy delay suggests the workplace pension provider had had difficulty in satisfying themselves that they had full and correct information on which to base their decision - or maybe the trustees have had the issue in relation to the DIS payment?

OP's post makes a number of references to 'them' but doesn't confirm if she is referring to the trustees of the DIS scheme, or the provider of the workplace pension.

@Mousey66, I'm so sorry you are having such a miserable time of it. Please could you kindly confirm whether you have been liaising with the employer, trustees of the DIS scheme and/or your husband's workplace pension?

Mousey66

Hi everyone, thank you for all your replies. My husband worked in retail for a major chain. I have been advised that it will be a lump sum only which will be paid out. I’m assuming his daughter was sent forms as I had to name any direct family members on the forms they sent to me last July. The expression of wish form was named as myself before we married almost 2 years ago, and my husband filled another stating the same after we married. It also asked if there was a will on the forms which I had to say there was but as it was made out before we married it wasn’t relevant anymore, however they still requested I sent it to them, which I did.
So is it worth me trying to argue that my husbands wishes haven’t been fulfilled as he didn’t want his daughter to receive any monies? Also would she be likely to receive half or more of the lump sum? I have asked Hymans, who are the company liasing everything but they say they can’t tell me what the amounts will be, I will receive confirmation in writing once they’re happy they have all the information they’ve requested.