private pensions - cover for dependants?

[tatt]

a friend has just died, his widow is not used to dealing with financial issues. I told her to check if his pension had cover for dependants as I know many do.

Just wondering - if you have a private pension would it pay out anything to your children? If so would that be until 18 or until they finish full time education? Is there a legal requirement to include any provision for dependants?

This might help - it depends on the type of pension I think link

thank you. That makes it look as though she will get the value of the fund as a lump sum since he wasn't yet of pension age. Hope it included some insurance cover as well, he did have other insurance.

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Not very young, two children - one at uni, one about to go if this doesn't screw up his A levels. He was made redundant when his health deteriorated and they had been applying for state benefits. I'm not sure if the widowed parent allowance covers you when they are past school leaving age?

tatt - here is the widowed parent allowance info
link

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I'll check out the Way foundation, thank you. If she's been honest about her age she'd be eligible. At least she should be able to get WPA, that's something - looks as though its only until the youngest is 20, though.