So can someone clarify, do you receive a widow/widower pension anymore these days....

[FinallyFluid]

I said surely there must be something in place, DH reckoned not.

He may have used the words F*ing Tories.....

There’s bereavement support allowance if you are under state pension age. It lasts 18 months.

Not sure about over that age.

Personal pensions and some occupational pensions can be set up to pay a % to a surviving spouse if you chose but obviously it costs more.
State pensions don't because everyone, male or female, gets their own in theory. I think.
To get the maximum state pension now, you need to have clocked up 35 years NI contributions.

Ah, so he was ri..................... chokes out the words ... right and I was wrong....

Thank you all.

MIL got her pension topped up to full state pension when FIL died. Previously she'd not worked enough to get full.
So it did change for her.

As a working person, I got an allowance for a short period. Maybe the eighteen months mentioned above, though my impression now is that it was less.Then you have to get on with it. Fortunately my late husband's pension pays me 50% of what he used to get.