Survivors Pension

Following the death of a deferred member, the value of the survivor’s pension is based on a build-up rate of 1/160th of the annual deferred pension that the deceased member had accrued.

Transfers in of previous pensions are also taken into account when calculating a surviving partner’s pension.

Surviving partner’s pensions can be paid to:

A widow
A widower
A civil partner
A cohabiting partner (so long as you were contributing into the scheme on or after 1 April 2008)

Whether all or some of your pension membership is used to calculate the surviving partner’s pension can depend on several factors, for example, whether you married or entered into a civil partnership before or after leaving LGPS. Surviving partner pensions are calculated on a case by case basis. If you need to know what the value of your surviving partner’s pension could be, please write in or email us to ask for an estimate.

Eligibility for Cohabiting Partner Pension

So long as the member has paid pension contributions into the LGPS after 1 April 2008, your cohabiting partner may be covered for a surviving partner’s pension. To be an eligible cohabiting partner, you need to prove that you have met the following conditions for a continuous period of at least 2 years:

You both currently are and have been free to marry/enter a civil partnership with each other
You both have been living together as if you were married /civil partners, and neither you or your cohabiting partner have been living with someone else as if you/they were a married couple or civil partners,
Either your cohabiting partner is, and has been, financially dependent on you or you are, and have been, financially interdependent on each other.