Will my partner lose state pension inherited from his late wife if we get married? Steve Webb replies

By STEVE WEBB, PENSIONS EXPERT AND COLUMNIST, THIS IS MONEY

Updated:

My partner claimed his pension in August 2017 before I met him and as he was widowed in 1995, he was able to claim an inherited pension from his late wife's contributions.

We have been talking about what would happen if he was to remarry. 

He thinks the inherited part of the pension would stop but having read different articles, I get the impression he would still get what he is receiving now as he claimed his pension after 6 April 2016.

Could you please give me some advice on this as to what the position would be if we were to get married?

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Wedding question: Will my partner lose state pension inherited from his late wife if we get married?

Wedding question: Will my partner lose state pension inherited from his late wife if we get married?

Steve Webb replies: The short answer to your question is that your partner's state pension would be unaffected if you were to marry now that he is over pension age. 

But it is worth running through a few of the reasons why this is so, as they may be relevant to other readers.

The first thing to say is that the National Insurance system is based around marriage (and civil partnerships) but does not recognise cohabitation. 

This means that simply living with someone as a couple without marrying has no effect on your state pension or their state pension. 

Steve Webb: Find out how to ask the former Pensions Minister a question about your retirement savings in the box below

Steve Webb: Find out how to ask the former Pensions Minister a question about your retirement savings in the box below

It would though affect entitlement to means-tested benefits such as pension credit which are based on the income of the whole household.

The second point to make is that it is your marital status *at state pension age* which is the key to your rights to a pension from a spouse's contributions. 

Marrying after state pension age cannot take away your entitlement to a pension you were entitled to draw at pension age by dint of an earlier marriage. 

However, if someone is married at pension age and is subsequently bereaved they can, in some circumstances, inherit some extra pension from their late spouse. 

This is the one case where a change in marital status after pension age can affect your pension but only in a positive way.

If you and your partner had met and married before state pension age, the answer would have been different. 

In that case, his marital status at pension age would have been 'married', and his ability to claim an inherited pension based on the contributions of his late first wife would have been lost.

It is worth saying that for people reaching state pension age after 5 April 2016, the ability to 'inherit' a pension based on a late spouse's contributions is now very limited. 

But one exception to this is illustrated by the example of your partner. 

Because his first wife unfortunately did not reach pension age, and because he did not remarry before pension age, he has been able to inherit part of the earnings-related state pension to which she would have been entitled.

If your partner is looking for reassurance on what would happen, he can speak to the Pension Service, whose contact details can be found here.

There is also a very useful government website which answers a lot of related questions about drawing a pension based on the contributions of an ex-spouse, a late spouse or a current spouse under the old and new state pension systems. This can be found here.

Finally, I would stress that my answer relates only to the state pension system. 

Workplace pension schemes may have different rules about what happens to widows and widowers if they remarry post-retirement and it is vital to check with the scheme before making any big decisions. 

ASK STEVE WEBB A PENSION QUESTION 

Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb is This Is Money's Agony Uncle.

He is ready to answer your questions, whether you are still saving, in the process of stopping work, or juggling your finances in retirement.

Since leaving the Department of Work and Pensions after the May 2015 election, Steve has joined pension firm Royal London as director of policy.

If you would like to ask Steve a question about pensions, please email him at pensionquestions@thisismoney.co.uk.

Steve will do his best to reply to your message in a forthcoming column, but he won't be able to answer everyone or correspond privately with readers. Nothing in his replies constitutes regulated financial advice. Published questions are sometimes edited for brevity or other reasons.

Please include a daytime contact number with your message - this will be kept confidential and not used for marketing purposes.

If Steve is unable to answer your question, you can also contact The Pensions Advisory Service, a Government-backed organisation which gives free help to the public. TPAS can be found here and its number is 0800 011 3797.

Steve receives many questions about state pension forecasts and COPE – the Contracted Out Pension Equivalent. If you are writing to Steve on this topic, he responds to a typical reader question here. It includes links to Steve's several earlier columns about state pension forecasts and contracting out, which might be helpful. 

If you have a question about state pension top-ups, Steve has written a guide which you can find here. 

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