Death benefits

If you die before age 75 and before you start receiving your deferred pension from the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), we may pay an amount as a death grant, as follows:

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 pensioner accounts with them: that is, you were receiving pension payments from LGPS
• Any active accounts with them: that is, where you still pay LGPS contributions

The grant payable will then be the higher of:

• The death-in-service grant
• The total death benefits from your deferred or pensioner accounts in this or other LGPS funds.

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 may 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. If you were paying contributions into the LGPS on after 1st April 2008, your cohabiting partner 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 stop paying LGPS contributions before retirement, and die before taking your deferred pension, the surviving partner’s pension is the relevant percentage of your deferred pension.

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.