You may be able to claim your loved one’s pensions depending on your loved one’s age, your relationship to them and the type of pension account that they held. 

State Pensions

Accessing a State Pension should be done within the first 12 months after your loved one’s death. Often state pensions will stop being paid after the person dies, but in some cases a spouse or civil partner can inherit some of the pension.

  1. Notify the Pensions Service that your loved one has died. This can be done via the Tell Us Once service that notifies all government organisations, or by calling the Pensions Service helpline on 0800 731 0469.
  1. Assess whether you can claim your loved one’s pension. This can only be done by a spouse or civil partner. You can contact Gov’s Pension Service to check what you can claim (you may be able to claim extra benefits if you meet the criteria): https://www.gov.uk/contact-pension-service

What you get/how you claim depends on whether you reached State Pension age before or after 6 April 2016.

If you reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016

If you reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016

Personal or workplace pensions

Accessing a Workplace Pension should be done within the first 12 months since your loved one’s death.

  1. Check through their paperwork to see if they had a workplace pension scheme
  1. Contact the pension provider to find out how much they had and what to do next
  1. Find out if the pension is either a Defined Contribution pension or a Defined Benefit pension. If you are unsure what type of pension they had, you can contact their employer to ask. Read more about how to do this here [link to other article]

Defined Contribution pensions 

Defined contribution pensions, also known as a ‘money purchase’ scheme, allows an individual to build up a pension pot whilst in employment. This pot is used to pay out an income once they reach retirement age, based on how much the person and/or their employer contributed, and how much this pot has grown. 

If your loved one had not yet retired, any beneficiaries can usually withdraw all the money as a lump sum and set up a guaranteed income (annuity), or set up a flexible retirement income (drawdown). This might not always be possible, so check the conditions of the pension. 

Different tax rules apply when inheriting a defined contribution pension, and it depends on whether the person died before age 75. 

If your loved one died before age 75:

If your loved one died after age 75:

Defined benefit pensions

A defined benefit pension pays an individual an income based on their salary, and how long they worked for their employer. These are less common, and tend to only apply to public sector or older workplace schemes. Each scheme is different, and any money paid out to any beneficiaries will be outlined in the rules of the pension scheme. 

This type of pension often pays out a ‘dependant’s pension’ to anyone financially dependent on the deceased, including a spouse or civil partner,  a partner the deceased wasn’t married to or in a civil partnership with, and/or child(ren) under 23. This payment is a percentage of what your loved one was getting, or would have received if they had not yet reached retirement age. This income is often taxable. 

If the pension was a small amount, it can often be paid in a lump sum. 

If your loved one had not retired: 

If your loved one had retired: 

Lifetime allowance

If the total value of your loved one’s pension contributions is more than the lifetime allowance, you might have to pay tax on any money you inherit from this.

The lifetime allowance usually changes every year, but it is frozen at £1,073,100 until 2026.

And there you have all the steps required in claiming your loved one’s pensions. For free grief support and a supportive community, click here

 

Last updated: 16/06/22