Death benefits

You are covered for death in service from day one of paying pension contributions. If you die in service before age 75, and you are still paying contributions into the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), an amount of three times your assumed pensionable pay is payable as a death grant.

If you paid Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) through the LGPS, the value of your AVC fund is also payable.

Any death grant must take into account if you have any other pensions in other LGPS Funds. We will check with the other LGPS Funds in England and Wales to see if you have:

• Any deferred pension accounts with them: that is, you were no longer paying LGPS contributions but not receiving pension payments yet
• Any pensioner accounts with them: that is, you were receiving pension payments from LGPS

The grant payable will then be the higher of:

• The death in service amount of three times your assumed pensionable salary plus the value of any AVCs; or
• The total death benefits from your deferred or pensioner accounts in other LGPS funds.

Assumed pensionable pay

The death grant is based on three times your assumed pensionable pay, as shown in this example.

A member dies in service on 10th July. Their employer works out their assumed pensionable pay as the average of the three complete months' pensionable pay they received before they died. If you are paid weekly, it will be based on the last 12 weeks.

The member is paid monthly, and received the following full salary in April, May and June:

• April pensionable pay = £1,600
• May pensionable pay = £1,600
• June pensionable pay = £1,800

The average of these three months is:

£1,600 + £1,600 + £1,800 = £5,000

£5,000 ÷ 3 = £1,666.67 average each month

Multiplying this by 12 months to give the annual assumed pensionable pay:

£1,666.67 x 12 = £20,000.04 assumed pensionable pay

The death grant would then be 3 x £20,000.04 = £60,000.12

If an independent doctor confirms that you were working reduced hours because of the ill-health which led to your death, any assumed pensionable pay based on that time is worked out using the pay you would have received if you had been working your normal hours.

The Clwyd Pension Fund has the discretion about who should receive the death grant. If you fill in an expression of wish form naming your beneficiaries, this helps us pay the death grant to the correct people.

They can be one or more family members, friends, or charities.

You can update your beneficiaries by logging into your Member Self Service account.

Or you can download an Expression of Wish form from our website.

If you are married or in a registered civil partnership, your partner will automatically receive a surviving partner’s pension if you die before them. They will need to send us a copy of the marriage or civil partnership certificate and fill in some claim forms.

If you are living with your partner but have never married or entered into a civil partnership with them, they are known as your cohabiting partner. They may qualify for a partner’s pension on your death. This pension would be based only on your pension membership from 6th April 1988, unless you chose before 1st April 2014 to pay extra contributions for membership before 6th April 1988 to count.

Your cohabiting partner must have met all of these conditions for at least 2 years before your death to qualify:

• You have both been free to marry or enter into a civil partnership with each other
• You have lived together as if you were spouses or registered civil partners
• Neither you nor your partner have been living with someone else as if you were spouses or civil partners with that other person
• Your partner depends on you financially, or on your joint income, to support your standard of living

Proof of these conditions could be paperwork showing that you lived in a household with shared spending, or that you had a bank account or mortgage in joint names.

A surviving partner’s pension is a percentage of your pension, payable for the rest of their life. Generally, this is:

• 30.625% of the pension you built up from April 2014
• 37.50% of the pension you built up between April 2008 and March 2014
• 50% of the pension you built up before April 2008

If you die in service, the pension will include a part of the increase you would have received if you had retired due to ill-health.

Some parts of your pension do not count towards the surviving partner’s pension. These may include:

• some periods of your pensionable service
• extra pension you built up by paying additional contributions

The surviving partner’s pension may be lower if you marry or enter into a civil partnership after you have stopped paying LGPS contributions.

To qualify for a child’s pension, the child must be:

• A natural child born before, on or within 12 months of a member’s death
• An adopted child born before or on the date of the member’s death
• A step-child or a child accepted by the deceased member as a family member who was dependent on the member when they died

A child sponsored by the member through a registered charity is not an eligible child.

They must also be:

• Under age 18, or
• Aged under 23 and in full-time education or vocational training, or
• Any age and unable to work because of permanent physical or mental impairment and, as a result, dependent on the member when they died. An independent doctor must advise on whether the impairment is likely to be permanent

For this purpose, work means paid employment for at least 30 hours a week, over at least a year.

Children receive a part of your pension. The amount will depend on how many children you have and whether your partner is also receiving a pension.