Does a state pension pass to spouse??

[Galaxygirl93]

I have recently lost my father this week, he was 61. My mother is 60. She is a house wife, my father worked his whole life.

They have been married for 35 years, can anyone let me know if she can claim his state pension- she will be stuck financially if not.

I don't know what to do.

Retirement age for your mother is 67 . That is the age she can apply for state pension Until that she she qualifies for £0.
however , she may qualify for other benefit depending on her circumstance . If she has more than £16,000 in any form of savings ( including your father's will be if had anything to leave her ) she will receive £0 benefit if it is means testing . Some benefits are not means testing . You should get her an appointment with the dwp / job centre or her local CAB ( citizens advice )
Sorry for your loss .

Sorry for your loss

Your DM can apply for universal credit today by going to www.gov.uk
If she is entitled to any money, it will not be back dated, it will be calculated from the day that she put in the claim.
If she receives universal credit, PIP, ESA & does not work. She should receive National Insurance credits towards her state pension from her age now, until her state pension age of probably 66, or 67
Her DWP coach should be able to assist her in person, once she has applied for Universal credit

Your DM can check exactly when she will be eligible to receive her state pension or pension credit on www.gov.uk/check-state-pension and an estimate of how much she will receive

www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

Good luck

Apply for universal credit

www.gov.uk/how-to-claim-universal-credit

As others say, check her own national insurance record.

My mil retired last year and discovered that her ni record was very low, years of owning a business with ex -p when it hadn’t been paid and then working in another country.

However she did have children under 12 after 1979(?) for which she received child benefit, as did everyone at that time. She received ni contributions for those years, about 12 years in her case. This is enough to trigger the qualifying years (10 years) for her basic state pension(about £100/week). It is also possible to top up ni contributions to increase the weekly amount, it costs about £820 to buy a year, and adds about £5/week to your pension. It takes about 3 years to recoup the money and obviously continues until you die.

If your mum receives any lump sum it might be worth looking at if that is useful to her( it might not be if she’s eligible for pension credits) also, normally you can only buy back 6 years of ni credits but she has until April 2023 to buy back others because of the change in womens pension age, but after April it will be only 6 years.

money saving expert is quite a good site for explaining this.

At the moment pensions for your mother are not really relevant as your late father has not been in receipt as he was too young - and the same goes for your mother.

She needs to make a claim for both bereavement support payment and Universal credit. Owning the home you live in - does not affect your universal credit claim.

For the first year after your first bereavement payment. - it does not affect your universal credit.

Your mother should also probably apply to be exempt from looking for work on medical grounds. When she makes the Universal credit claim she needs to tell them she cannot work due to blood clots. She will need to get a med cert.
Universal Credit is claimed on line with a subsequent visit to the Jobcentre to verify ID. The Jobcentre interviewer can also give advice on I'll Heath payments such as LCWRA and PIP.

Thank you.
I think Universal credit will be the best way forward. As I said my mum is not in best of health herself having had a blood clot in 2014, heart attack in 2018 and further referrals this year to cardiologist. She also has early arthritis in her hands and struggles to walk more than 5/10 minutes at a time , and some days her leg will swell up lots and be very painful.

Will also look up the Bereaved Payment thing, there is just so much to think about on top of the initial grief.

And yes maybe these things should have been considered sooner but who was to know what was going to happen .