Post-death pension question

[pensionpuzzled]

NC, obviously.

My husband and I separated five years ago. We were in the process of getting divorced (obtained the decree nisi) but then he said we shouldn't obtain the decree absolute as I would still qualify for his pension after his death so long as we were legally married. We checked this with the private pension provider, who confirmed that this was the case.

He is already drawing his pension. DC are older, but still in f/t education.

Fast forward, and almost-XH is terminally ill. We separated for the good reason that he was abusive. Part of our agreement was that while I would have no spousal support from him (despite being the lower earner and having the DC most of the time), I need not worry because I had his pension to look forward to. However, given that he is now living on borrowed time, he has been consulting lawyers to see if there is any way to block this, despite the rules of the actual pension stating that I would continue to receive it.

It costs him nothing for me to receive this money in due course. He is doing it for pure spite (though I know this motivation is of no interest to the law!)

Do any of you MN legal bods know if it is legally possible to do what he wants to do? We have not got a Consent Order; we have a Separation Agreement which we drew up between ourselves (we both took legal advice prior to this). This was witnessed by two neighbours, but has never been through a court - so I'm not sure how valid it is. He has also made a Will; I don't know what it contains, though our children are likely to be the main beneficiaries.

Can anyone advise me, please?

OP it is worth looking at the definition of spouse in the rules, it may be as simple as 'legally married to at the time of death' . Or it may contain caveats / exclusions about separation / new cohabiting partners

@Collaborate No, some of the major public sector pension schemes have (different) lump sum payments within a certain number of years after retirement. LGPS and teachers for example.

I don't t know about divorces but I know a bit about public sector pensions. From my experience if you're not properly divorced and there's not another woman in a long term relationship that might have a claim, then the trustees are likely to pay it out to you if the scheme pays a spouses pension.

The issues I have seen are where there are competing claims to the spouse pension. Then it's difficult to take a decision, whereas this seems clear cut as long as he doesn't sort the final divorce papers.

As some others have posted here, if you are legally still married at the date of his death then you will be entitled to the widows pension from a public sector scheme and he cannot do anything to prevent that. If you are divorced at the date of death, you would only be entitled to anything awarded to you by a court as part of the divorce process.

As Cabin said, if he hasn’t been retired for that long there could still be a death grant payable as most of the public sector schemes have that. However, the scheme will have discretion to decide who this is paid to so they could take his views into account and not pay this to you (if it’s due). The best thing to do is ring the pension administrators - they won’t give you information specific to his benefits but they can give general information about the criteria needed to qualify for a widows pension.

@CabinClose I stand corrected. Many thanks.

OP, you’ll also be able to claim Bereavement Support Payment BTW.

Thank you so much - this is all extremely helpful.

He has been retired for over 10 years (took early retirement on ill health grounds - so his pension is slightly less than it would have been if he had carried on to the bitter end, but not by much, as the employer made up some contributions as part of the early retirement deal - they were looking to make people redundant at the time, so were helpful to him).

I haven't yet found any specific definition of 'spouse' in the 300+ pages of Scheme Rules, but will keep combing through it. It is, however, true that there is nobody else in the picture, and the DC's share is, I imagine, guaranteed regardless (DC1 is already at university so won't be in f/t education for too much longer - but after that, should then start earning anyway, so should be less in need of it). Plus I'd be more able to support the DC if they want to go on to do a further degree/some kind of professional training if I have my half of the pension...

(at this rate, they'll want to start university again in a couple of years' time once Covid has become less of a hindrance!)

@CabinClose

OP, you’ll also be able to claim Bereavement Support Payment BTW.

I had never even heard of this. Thank you.