Survivor benefits

Please note – from 1 April 2026, the Government have made changes to some of the historic survivor benefits rules in the LGPS. We will be in touch with any members or survivors who are impacted by the changes in due course. If you would like to know more, please contact us.

Lump sum death grant

If you die before you have taken your deferred benefits, , a lump sum death grant will be payable.

If you left before 1 April 2008, a lump sum of 3 times your deferred pension is paid.
If you left on or after 1 April 2008, a lump sum of 5 times your deferred pension is paid.

The amount may be different if you have multiple pensions in the LGPS.

You can nominate anyone to receive these funds by submitting an ‘Expression of Wish – Nomination Form’ to the pension fund (see 'Resources' section), although we have discretion over who receives any lump sum death grant..

Survivor's pension

When you die, a pension may be payable to your husband/wife, your civil partner or your cohabiting partner and any eligible children.

If benefits are to be paid to a cohabiting partner they will need to meet certain criteria at the date of your death, as follows:

You and your cohabiting partner must have been free to marry each other or to enter into a civil partnership, and
You and your cohabiting partner must have been living together as if you were spouses, or civil partners, and
neither you nor your cohabiting partner may have been living with someone else as if you were spouses or civil partners, and
either your cohabiting partner must have been financially dependent on you or you both must have been financially interdependent on each other.

All of the above must be met for a continuous period of at least 2 years prior to your death.

Children's pensions are payable to any eligible children you may have when you die or born up to one year after. The child must be:

Under age 18, or
Under age 23 and in full-time education or vocation training, or
Under age 23 and unable to obtain gainful employment because of physical or mental impairment, or
Over age 23 and unable to obtain gainful employment because of permanent physical or mental impairment (and the child must have been dependent on the member at the date of death because of the impairment).

Please contact us if you want to know more.

Calculating the amount of survivor's pension

This section describes the rules that apply under the 2014 Scheme for deaths after you have left active service but before you have started taking your pension. If you had membership of the LGPS before 1 April 2014 and would like to know more about the survivor pension calculations under the previous schemes, please contact us.

For your husband or wife, civil partner or cohabiting partner:

1/160th of your pensionable pay multiplied by the total membership built up at your date of leaving.

Note

Only your membership from 6 April 1988 is used for cohabiting partners, although you do have the option to pay additional survivor benefit contributions (ASBCs) to extend this cover to include earlier periods of membership in the Scheme.

For your eligible children

Please note that if there is more than one eligible child they will share the pension equally.

Pension for one child, where a pension is also being paid to your husband, wife, civil partner or cohabiting partner

1/320th of your pensionable pay multiplied by the total membership built up at your date of leaving.

Pension for one child, where no pension is being paid to your husband, wife, civil partner or cohabiting partner

1/240th of your pensionable pay multiplied by the total membership built up at your date of leaving.

Pension for two or more children, where a pension is also being paid to your husband, wife, civil partner or cohabiting partner