Will my MIL continue to receive PIls pension for the rest of her life?

[Greatly]

I've asked my financial advisor but he's very slow - I've googled and can't find a definitive answer.

PIL died last year and MIL is now receiving his state pension as well as her own. Will that carry on for her lifetime?

Thanks 😁

Just didn't need lots of people questioning whether she's received this in error or insisting it must be a workplace pension.

Just ensuring that no-one else wastes their time telling me something that I've made clear that I already know.

Yes, you do. Pensions and avoidance of inheritance tax are the main drivers of late marriages.

This thread 😂 amazing how a perfectly innocent question can annoy people so much they get spiteful - thanks MNHQ.

I'm not sure it is still valid but obviously I am no expert (lots on the govt website about being of pension age before 2016).

DMIL has done very well out of it and if it's for life then it will improve a lot of things for her.

She won't receive his State pension, she will have to repay any she's had since he died and they're quick about it! When my OH died and I registered the death I used the Tell Us Once form which tells various organisations of the death, within three days I got a letter telling me that the pension paid since his death would be taken back from the account immediately!

Ok, well its been confirmed in a letter - they asked for details of who to pay his pension to after he died and were notified that it would be MIL. They had previously been notified with the death registration service.

I think possibly the rules have changed now - they were in their 80s. I will say we were surprised as it was unexpected.

From the govt website "After the death of a spouse"

If you reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016
You’ll get any State Pension based on your husband, wife or civil partner’s National Insurance contribution when you claim your own pension.

@Blossomtoes would that only count if we both own properties.
Been together 15 years but live separately both in rented accommodation so don't have property to leave behind.

The inheritance tax bit? It depends on your assets definitely, if neither of you have assets of more than £325k it doesn’t apply. It’s worth doing for the state pension and perhaps for occupational pensions, depending on the scheme. My bloke’s pensions represent the bulk of our income and we have to be married for me to get a survivor’s pension if I outlive him.

If I remember correctly - this was one of the things the Tories changed. Spouses used to be able to claim deceased spouses pension until the day they died - I believe it’s now only 18months. Severely disadvantaging stay at home parents who wouldn’t have contributed as much ….. this was at the same time they moved the pension age back and created the WASPI women too.

There’s a theme here - Tories = bad!!!

Bearing in mind of course that there has been a recent bereavement.

Have a bit of compassion people!

Thanks. It's been really hard trying to sort MILs finances as shes absolutely clueless and in a state of shock bless her so dh and I are doing it all for her at the minute.

The comment about 18 months is interesting because this is what I wondered - wondered whether it was to the end of the tax year or something, ie had a finite date - if that's the case they don't make that at all clear!

I'm guessing MIL was born before 1953 and has been receiving a reduced Married Woman's SP (about half, £80-ish ) based on her husbands NI record.
Married women of that age, can then inherit half the husbands SP when he dies; giving the widow a full SP until she dies.

www.usdaw.org.uk/Help-Advice/Pensions/Older-married-women

That concession ended for anyone who retired after 2016. From then, everyone's SP is based solely on their own NI record.

Yes.

<www.usdaw.org.uk/Help-Advice/Pensions/Older-married-women>

Tell us Once will have automatically informed Council Tax she is entitled to single-occupancy reduction, and that should happen right away. TUO should also have moved their free TV license into her name (make sure they claimed it; its age related). She will also get the full Govt OAPS heating grant in her own name (previously, shared between them)

When things settle down it would be well worth checking she is claiming and receiving any other benefits she's entitled to by age.

The DWP is actually pretty good at telephone advice on pensions now, probably faster than your financial advisor!

When my Dad died a couple of years ago my mother got half of his teacher's pension in addition to her own.

His state pension was cancelled, but hers was adjusted (upwards) meaning that she receives the equivalent of about 50% of what my Dad's would have been each month.

I can only talk about how it panned out from our perspective. I think that there was a bit of adjustment to take account of the overpayment which happened in the month he died and a sum did initially have to be returned, but after that it settled down and was fine.

So that is saying that she will get her pension paid to her, taking his NI contributions into account. She won't actually land his monthly payment in addition to hers, just her reduced pension will scale up as though his NI contributions were hers.

She has already had his pension paid to her in addition to her own.

Thank you. Sorry about your dad.

Thank you! Will try them later. That's really helpful.

The 18 month limit applies to widows pensions paid to spouses younger than retirement age. It won't affect your MIL.

That is a very good question.
You can request a pension forecast from DWP which will tell you how much you state pension you’d get on your own contributions.
I have a state pension, dh has a state pension plus three private ones, one of which will pay me a percentage if he dies before me. Not sure about the state pension though.

She may well do, but it will be her pension based on his contribution record. This has been scrapped with the new state pension but if he had old state pension it applys. My mum has a pension based on my Dad's state entitlement. She is early 80s and gets £1400 a month. My friends Mum, late 70s gets similar.

I’ve properly read the thread now and reiterate what another poster said about DWP being helpful over the phone. They were really helpful to me when I had to make a claim for a benefit. She asked me a load of questions, I had all of my details to hand which helped speed up the process, she said I qualified for it but she needed to ask for verification from a supervisor re some calculations and would ring me back, an hour later she rings me back to say I would be receiving it weekly and a backdated amount was due to me.
I’m no longer in need of the benefit now and notified them straight away.

My dad died last year and I think that broadly this was what my mum got, but I can't remember the specific figures.