Pensions on death to non-spouses

[Justpassingtime1]

Can any pensions be left to siblings /cousins etc?
I have one that pays out to a nominated person until I am 70.
Can the State or any other Public Sector/Final salary be left to anyone else than s spouse?

The short answer is no.
State pensions are not "left".
Private pensions, if in drawdown, can be paid to a nominated beneficiary or in to the estate.
For defined benefit pensions it all depends on the rules of the scheme.

Exh has nominated me despite divorcing, this will be void if he remarries but otherwise he can nominate anyone (public sector)

My private pension has an ‘expression of wish’ that I can use to nominate who I want to get part of a lump sum ..its not binding though and the guidance is pretty vague.

With public sector pensions there’s two different elements on death. Firstly there’s potentially a death grant lump sum. Members can express a wish for whoever they like to receive this, but the ultimate discretion of who to pay it to remains with the scheme manager (although they would usually follow your wishes unless there’s a good reason why they shouldn’t (e.g expression of wish form is many years old and circumstances have changed).

Secondly there’s any pensions that may be payable and these can only be paid to those who qualify under the scheme regulations (usually your spouse/partner or dependant children if they meet the criteria). If there’s nobody who qualifies for these pensions they just don’t get paid, they cannot be allocated to someone else.

Therefore you could nominate a sibling/cousin to receive any death grant, but they wouldn’t be able to receive a survivor’s pension.

That’s public sector though, as a pp said for other schemes it will depend on their rules but I would imagine they would be similar.