If you die before you take your deferred benefits

If you die before your deferred benefits are paid, there may be benefits payable to your:

• spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner
• children
• nominated person or charitable organisation

This page provides general information, but you can get an estimate of what may be payable in the event of your death by using My Pension Online.

If you die before you release your deferred benefits, a death grant may be payable. The death grant is a one-off lump sum payment to a person or charitable organisation of your choice. It is paid in addition to any survivor’s pensions.

The value of the death grant depends on your dates of membership in the Scheme. If you stopped contributing to your deferred LGPS pension after 1 April 2008, the death grant will be 5 x the current value of your annual pension. If you stopped contributing to your deferred LGPS pension before 1 April 2008, the death grant will be 3 x the current value of your annual pension.

If you have an active LGPS account (one that you are still paying into) as well as a deferred benefit account, you will receive the death grant with the highest value, not both. The death in service grant for an active LGPS account is 3 x your pensionable pay. For more information, see LGPS death grants.

If you have more than one deferred pension account, a death grant for each pension account is payable.

If you have another LGPS account where the pension is already in payment (pensioner account), a death grant for the deferred benefit account will be payable in addition to any death grant from the pensioner account. For more information, see What happens to your pension when you die.

You can tell us who you would like to receive the death grant by either:

• logging on to My Pension Online
• or completing an Expression of Wish form

You can nominate more than one person, allocating a percentage to each.

In the event that you pass away, we can normally pay the death grant straight to your nominated person(s) or charity without waiting for probate.

If you do not make a nomination, we may have to pay your death grant to your estate. In this case, it may be subject to inheritance tax. We advise you to consult a solicitor if you are unsure of what to do.

In some cases, we may not be able to pay the death grant to the nominated person(s) or charity. This could be because:

• the nominated person has died
• the chosen charity is now defunct
• the nominated person is no longer your spouse/partner/civil partner/cohabiting partner
• the Pensions Administration Manager considers that it wouldn't be reasonable to pay the death grant to the nominated person(s) or charity due to the particular circumstance

If you have an in-house AVC fund linked to your deferred benefits, what happens to this depends on when you left your employment.

If you left your employment after 1 April 2014, the AVC fund will be payable as a lump sum. We have absolute discretion over who this amount is paid to, though we will always do our best to fulfil your wishes. If you left your employment before 1 April 2014, the AVC fund must be paid directly to your estate and dealt with according to the law.

The Government limits the total amount of tax-free lump sums and death benefit lump sums that can be paid in respect of someone's pension benefits to £1,073,100.

This is known as the Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance (LSDBA). When a member dies, the person dealing with their financial affairs is responsible for checking that the member has not exceeded the LSDBA.

If exceeded, they will need to report this to HMRC and pay the tax charge due.

For more information see Tax controls on pensions - Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance.

In addition to the death grant, there may be annual pensions payable for a qualifying spouse, civil partner, cohabiting partner and dependant children.

If you have more than one LGPS account (active, deferred or pensioner) held either at Buckinghamshire or another LGPS fund, survivor’s pensions are payable for each. You can tell us about anyone that may be entitled to a survivor’s pension via My Pension Online but you don’t have to.

We will ask for evidence and relevant documents before paying out any survivor pensions.

A surviving partner’s pension may be payable to a spouse, civil partner or, if you were active in the Scheme after 1 April 2008, an eligible cohabiting partner. The surviving partner’s pension is payable for life and will receive any cost of living increases due each year.

An estimate of the surviving partner’s pension is shown on your Annual Benefit Statement. You can also get an estimate using My Pension Online.

If you married or formed a civil partnership after you stopped paying in, some membership won’t be used in the calculation of survivor’s pension benefits.

Benefits are calculated using your membership after 5 April 1978, plus any additional membership you were entitled to under the 1995 Regulations (if you left active membership before 1 April 1998), or the 1997 Regulations (if you left active membership after 31 March 1998). There are some exceptions to the general rules. Total membership will be used to calculate benefits in the following scenarios:

• if you were active after 31 March 1972 and left active membership before 1 April 1998, were in an opposite‑sex marriage during that period, subsequently divorced, and then entered into an opposite‑sex civil partnership or marriage with the same person after you had left active membership
• if you were in a same sex civil partnership or marriage, left active membership between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2014, and died during that period
• if you were in a same‑sex civil partnership, left active membership between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2014, died after that period, and an election was made under regulation 17(15) of the 2014 Transitional Regulations

If you stopped paying into the LGPS between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2014, you would have needed to make an election before 1 April 2015 to have any membership built up before 5 April 1988 used in the calculation of your survivor’s pension.

If you paid into your deferred pension account after 1 April 2008, an eligible cohabiting partner is entitled to receive the surviving partner’s pension. To be eligible, your partner would need to meet some important criteria.

For a period of least two years before you die:

• you must both have been free to marry or enter into a civil partnership
• you must have lived together as if married or in a civil partnership
• you or your partner must not have lived with anyone else as if married or in a civil partnership
• you must have been financially dependent on each other, or your partner was financially dependent on you

We will request evidence to prove that these criteria apply. This evidence could consist of things like joint bank account statements, utility bills, mortgage, lease or tenancy agreements. However, it’s important to understand that we don’t have an exact list of documents we require, only that whatever is presented is enough to meet the criteria. It is up to your partner to arrange and supply this evidence. Once we have this, we will decide if we need further evidence or if the criteria is met.

Membership used in the calculation will only be for deferred benefits built up after 5 April 1988, unless you made an election to pay additional contributions before 1 April 2014 to ensure earlier membership was included.

There are also pensions payable to children who are:

• aged under 18
• aged between 18 and 23 and in full time education, or
• suffering from a mental or physical impairment that stops them working at least 30 hours a week for a period of at least 1 year

We will request evidence that children between 18 and 23 are in full time education. If the child’s application is based on the criteria for physical or mental impairment, we will also require evidence.

The amount a child receives depends on how many eligible children you have and if a surviving partner’s pension is also being paid.

If there is no surviving partner’s pension being paid, a child’s pension is worked out based on 1/240th of your pensionable pay. For two or more children, it is based on 1/120th of your pensionable pay.

If there is a surviving partner’s pension being paid, one child’s pension is worked out based on1/320th of your pensionable pay. For two or more children, it is based on 1/160th of your pensionable pay.

Children eligible to receive a pension are:

• a natural child, including those born within 12 months of your death
• an adopted child, born before your death
• a stepchild or a child dependent on you at the date of your death and accepted by you as a member of the family (excluding sponsored children through a registered charity)

We will request evidence to prove the child’s relationship to you and their dependence on you at the date of death. There are no set criteria for what this evidence will be. This evidence will need to be supplied by the child’s guardian or surviving parent. We will be unable to award a child’s pension where the evidence is insufficient.

The way you can pay extra towards your benefits has changed over the years and some extra pension payments will not count towards the calculation of survivor’s pensions. Extra pension purchased by paying towards an Additional Pension Contributions (APCs) or a Shared Cost Additional Pension Contributions (SCAPC) will not count towards the calculation of survivor’s pension benefits.

There are no survivor’s pensions payable for Additional Regular Contributions (ARCs) paid before 1 April 2014, unless you specifically paid extra to provide them. Any membership purchased through LGPS added years (before 1 April 2008) will be included in the calculation of children’s pensions but will only be included for surviving partner’s pensions if you were married, cohabiting or in a civil partnership with them while you were still paying in.

If you have Guaranteed Minimum Pension protection, then a surviving spouse or civil partner is entitled to receive this protection in the calculation of a surviving partner’s pension. Widowers and civil partners will only receive GMP protection in the calculation of pension benefits built-up between 6 April 1988 and 6 April 1997.

Trivial commutation can be done if the survivor’s pension is small enough to be fully extinguished by a single lump‑sum payment. This option only applies to the survivor’s pension received from us and any payment made is at our discretion using factors from the Government Actuary’s Department.

We can supply an estimate upon request. To find out more, see how to take your pension as a lump sum.