What happens to your pension when you die

If you die when your pension is in payment, there may be benefits payable to your:

spouse
civil partner
cohabiting partner
dependent children
nominated persons
chosen charitable organisation

You may be able to get an estimated value of the benefits payable in the event of your death by using the benefit projector tool on My Pension Online.

Death grants

In some circumstances a one-off lump sum death grant is payable to a nominated person(s) or charitable trust.

If you are under age 75 and stopped paying into the LGPS on or after 1 April 2008 the death grant is 10 years annual pension, minus what has already been paid to you.

If you are under age 75 and you stopped paying into the LGPS between 1 April 1998 and 31 March 2008, the death grant is 5 years annual pension, minus what has already been paid to you.

If you would like an estimate of your death grant, contact us on [email protected] or call our helpline on 01296 383 755.

Lump Sum & Death Benefit Lump Sum Allowance.

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.

View more information at Tax controls on pensions - Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance.

If you stopped paying into the LGPS before 1 April 1998

If you stopped paying into the LGPS before 1 April 1998, there may be a death grant payable if:

you have less than 10 years reckonable service used in the calculation of your pension, but you have had your pension in payment for less than 5 years
you have more than 10 years reckonable service used in the calculation of your pension

Nominate someone to receive the death grant

You can tell us who you would like to receive the death grant by making a nomination on My Pension Online or by completing an expression of wish form (PDF, 565KB). 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) without waiting for probate.

The tax office may consider the money excluded from your estate and not deduct any inheritance tax. However, if you do not make a nomination, we may have to pay your death grant into your estate and it will be dealt with according to the terms of the law. We advise pensioners 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 or organisation. 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 consider that it wouldn't be reasonable to pay the death grant to the nominated person or charity due to the particular circumstance

Survivor and dependant pensions

In addition to the death grant, there may be annual pensions payable for a qualifying spouse, civil partner, cohabiting partner and 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. We will always ask for evidence and relevant official documents before paying out any survivor’s pension.

Click on the sections below to see who can receive a survivor's pension, eligibility criteria and how the survivors pension is calculated.

If you wish for a spouse or civil partner to receive a survivor's pension, you will need to provide evidence of their relationship to you.

We will request a copy of the applicable marriage or civil partnership certificate as well as the survivor’s date of birth verification before paying any pension benefits.

If you married or formed a civil partnership after leaving the scheme

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.

Only membership after 5 April 1978 will be used to calculate survivor’s pensions for widows and spouses of same sex marriages.

Only membership after 5 April 1988 will be used to calculated widower’s pensions for opposite sex marriages.

If you left the scheme before 1 April 2008, a survivor’s annual pension for a civil partner will be based on membership after 5 April 1978.

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 6 April 1988 used in the calculation of your survivor’s pension.

If you paid into the LGPS after 1 April 2008, an eligible cohabiting partner is entitled to receive the survivor’s pension.

Eligibility

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 married or civil partners
you were financially dependent on each other, or your partner was financially dependent on you
you or your partner must not have lived with anyone else as if married or in a civil partnership

Documentation required

We will request evidence to prove that this applies. This evidence could consist of things such as 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 are met.

How we calculate the survivors pension

Membership used in the calculation of a cohabiting partner’s pension will only be for benefits built up after 6 April 1988, unless you made an election to pay additional contributions before 1 April 2014, to ensure earlier membership was included.

Eligibility

There are pensions payable to children who are either:

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

Children eligible to receive a pension are:

a natural child, 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)

Documentation required

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.

We will also need 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.

How we calculate the survivor's pension

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.

If you paid extra into your pension

Some extra pension payments will not count towards the calculation of survivor’s pensions.

Extra contributions to your pension will not count towards a survivors pension if they were:

Additional Pension Contributions (APC)
Shared Cost Additional Pension Contributions (SCAPC)
Additional Regular Contributions (ARC)

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 a surviving partner’s pension if you were married, cohabiting or in a civil partnership with them while you were paying in.

Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) protection

If you have Guaranteed Minimum Pension protection, then a surviving widow 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 5 April 1997.

Trivially commuting a survivor’s or dependant’s pension

If the value of a survivor’s or dependant’s pension pot is under £30,000, they may be able to give up their LGPS pension rights in exchange for a one-off lump sum payment. This is called trivial commutation. If your survivors are eligible for this option, we can supply an estimate upon request. Find out how to Take your pension as a lump sum.

Contact us about your pension

Details of how to Contact us about your pension