Death grant
If you die after you have retired, payment of your pension benefits will stop. The benefits that are payable will depend on how long you have been receiving the pension for and when you left the scheme.
The death grant may be affected if you have active membership elsewhere in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
You can let us know who you want to receive any death grant that may be due. If you have not already made your wishes known or you wish to update your nomination you can do this either through My Pension Online or by completing, a Death Grant Nomination form and send it to the Pensions team.
Retired on or after 1 April 2014
A death grant will be paid if, when you die, you are under age 75 and your pension has been paid for less than 10 years.
If at retirement you chose to take standard benefits from the scheme, the death grant is 10 times the pension at date of death less the amount of pension that has already been paid.
If at retirement you chose to take a bigger lump sum, the death grant is 10 times the value of the pension before it was exchanged for lump sum, less the extra lump sum less, the amount of pension already paid.
Retired on or after 1 April 2008
A death grant will be paid if, when you die, you are under age 75 and the pension has been paid for less than 10 years.
The death grant would be 10 times the pension at date of death, less the amount of pension that has already been paid.
Retired on or before 31 March 2008
A death grant will be paid if, when you die, you are under age 75 and less than 5 years pension has been paid. If you left before 1 April 1998 there is no guarantee of a death grant, it will depend on the amount of service you had in the scheme.
The death grant would be 5 times the pension at date of death less the amount of pension that has already been paid.
Survivor’s pension
A pension is payable to your husband, wife or civil partner and if you left the scheme after 1 April 2008 and are eligible, for your cohabiting partner. The only exception to this is if you are female and you left the scheme before 6 April 1988, no survivor’s pension payable.
You don’t have to provide us with details of your cohabiting partner but we recommend that you do using the Nomination of Cohabiting Partner for Survivor’s Pension form. The form and notes provide further information on the criteria for receiving a cohabiting partner’s pension.
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.
Child’s pension
A child’s pension is due to any eligible child/children. The amount of pension depends on the number of children and whether a survivor’s pension will be paid. Where a pension is payable to two or more children the pension will be shared equally.
The LGPS member website provides further information on how survivor and children’s benefits are calculated.