If you die while you are still employed and paying into the pension scheme, we will pay a death grant of three times your assumed pensionable pay. This may be different however, if you also have a deferred benefit and/or pension in payment with the Local Government Pension Scheme. Further information can be found on the LGPS Member website.
If you pay Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) through the in-house AVC provider, Prudential, the value of your AVC fund is also payable as a lump sum.
The North Yorkshire Pension Fund (NYPF) has absolute discretion over who to pay your death grant to and will use your nomination as a guide to your wishes. This enables the payment to be made free from Inheritance Tax. It is therefore important that you review and update your nomination regularly, especially after a change in personal circumstances like a marriage, the birth of a child, death of a nominee, separation or divorce. You can nominate anyone you wish, including registered charities. You do not have to pay the whole death grant to one nominee but you must tell us how much you want each one to receive e.g. 40%, 60% etc. and the total must add up to 100%.
You can check and update your nominations easily by logging in or registering for My Pension Online. Alternatively you can complete a Death Grant Nomination form.
Survivor’s pension
A pension is payable to your husband, wife, civil partner and if eligible your cohabiting partner.
The survivor’s pension is payable immediately after your death for the rest of their life and will be adjusted every year in line with the cost of living.
Eligible cohabiting partner
An eligible cohabiting partner is a partner you are living with who, at the date of your death, has met all of these conditions for a continuous period of at least two years:
- you and your cohabiting partner are, and have been, free to marry each other or enter into a civil partnership with each other, and
- you and your cohabiting partner have been living together as if you were a married couple or civil partners, and
- neither you nor your cohabiting partner has been living with someone else as if you / they were a married couple or civil partners, and
- either your cohabiting partner is and has been dependent on you, or you are and have been financially interdependent on each other.
Your partner is financially dependent on you if you have the highest income. Financially interdependent means that you rely on your joint finances to support your standard of living. It doesn’t mean that you need to be contributing equally. For example, if your partner’s income is more than yours, he or she may pay the mortgage and most of the bills and you may pay for the weekly shopping. We will ask for evidence of joint finances for the two years prior to the date of death such as:
- Joint mortgage statements
- Joint bank statements
- Joint Council Tax statements
- Joint utility bills
- Joint house insurance policies
When you die, a survivor’s pension would be paid to your cohabiting partner if:
- all of the above conditions were met on your date of death, and
- your cohabiting partner satisfies the Fund that these conditions had been met for a continuous period of two years immediately before your death.
You don’t have to provide us with details of your cohabiting partner but, we recommend that you do so by completing the Nomination of Cohabiting Partner for Survivor's Pension form.
Please see LGPS Member website for further information.
Child’s pension
A child's pension is also due to any eligible child/children. The amount of pension depends on the number of eligible children and whether a survivor’s pension is being paid to a spouse, civil partner or eligible co-habiting partner. Where a pension is payable to two or more children the pension will be shared equally.
Please see LGPS Member website for further information.