What Happens to My UK State Pension on Death?
Published / Last Updated on 29/01/2025
What happens to your UK state pension on death will depend upon what sort of UK state pension you have. There are currently two state pension formats, one for those that reached state pension age before 6th April 2016 (Old Age/Basic State Pension) and the ‘New’ State Pension for those that reach state pension age after 5th April 2016.
‘Old Style’ Basic State Pension and Additional State Pension Before 6 April 2016
Before April 2016, there were two tiers of state pension.
- Basic State Pension: Currently, for someone with a full national insurance credits record the Basic State Pension (sometimes called the ‘Old Age Pension’) and is currently
- Tax year 2024/25: Single person £169.50 per week and for a married couple £271.05 per week.
- Tax year 2025/26: Single person £176.45 per week and for a married couple £282.15 per week.
- There is a ‘married couples’ state pension because many married women used to pay reduced rate national insurance contributions (sometimes known as married woman’s ‘stamp’).
- This meant that many women did not build up further national insurance credits in their own name and therefore did not accrue enough to secure a full basic state pension in their own name hence a higher married couples pension in the name of the husband at a higher rate.
- Additional State Pension: In the 1960s there was an extra State Pension called the Graduated Pension and then in the late 1970s, a new State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) was introduced whereby many paid a higher level of national insurance contributions to fund a second tier SERPS pensions, this then changed its name to the State Second Pension (S2P) and both are paid out as Additional State Pension.
- ‘Contracted in’ meant you paid the full rate of national insurance and build up an additional state pension.
- ‘Contracting out’ - many defined benefit/final salary company pension schemes ‘contracted out’ their employees of SERPS with employees having a rebate and paying 1.6% lower national insurance contributions, meaning greater ‘take home’ pay but no build up of Additional State Pension.
- Later in the late 1980s/1990s individuals could do the same by ‘contracting out’ but paid the usual rate of NIC (with a rebate) and the additional NIC rebate was redirected into your own private pension. This meant there was no build up of Additional State Pension but a build of then additional ‘Protected Rights’ pensions in your defined contribution (investment linked) pension.
What Happens To Your ‘Old-Style’ Basic State Pension and Additional State Pension on Death?
- If your partner receives the Married Couple’s State Pension and they die, your state pension credits will be topped up by theirs to hopefully push you up to the full Basic State Pension provided you were still married to each other when they died.
- If your deceased partner also had Additional State Pension and had reached state pension age by 6 April 2016 then
- SERPS - if they died before 6 October 2002, you inherit up to 100% of their SERPS Additional State Pension, if they died after 6 October 2022, you inherit on a sliding scale, based upon ages, 100% down to 50% of their SERPS. For most people today where men were born after 6 October 1945 and women born after 6 July 1950, you will inherit 50% of their SERPS provided you were still married to each other when they died.
- S2P – you inherit 50% of their S2P Additional State Pension provided your were still married to each other when they died.
‘New’ State Pension From 6 April 2016
The New State Pension started in April 2016 and was lauded for being higher than the old basic state pension. Currently, for someone with a full national insurance credits record the UK new State Pension payable is:
- Tax year 2024/25: £221.20 per week (£11,502.40 pa).
- Tax year 2025/26: £230.25 per week (£11,973 pa).
- We all accrue individual ‘New’ State Pension entitlement in our own names based upon our individual national insurance credits (NIC) with nothing to do with our spouses NIC.
- There is no longer a ‘Married Couple’s New State Pension’.
- ‘Contracted in’: If you had built up Additional State Pension Credits (by being ‘contracted in’ to SERPS and S2P) before 6th April 2016, these credits are not lost and if you retire after 6th April 2016, DWP compare your entitlement to the old Basic State Pension + Additional State Pension versus ‘New’ State Pension.
- The difference, if you would have been better off under the old system, is called the ‘Protected Amount’ and will be added to your ‘New’ State Pension.
- You will not inherit any Protected Amount if your spouse died before 6 April 2016 but would have reached State Pension age on or after that date.
What Happens To Your ‘New’ State Pension on Death?
- You will receive your ‘New’ State Pension based upon your own NIC record. You do not get any of your deceased spouse’s credits.
- You may get an uplift if your partner had an increased state pensions entitelment due to then deferring taking their own state pensions.
- If you do not have enough NIC credits to secure a full state pension, you may be entitled to Pension Credit to make your weekly income up to the minimum income guarantee MIG (currently £228.70 per week for tax year 2024/25).
- If your deceased spouse had built up Additional State Pension credits (‘contracted in’ to SERPS/S2P before 6th April 2016), you will receive 50% of their Protected Amount provided your were still married to each other when they died.
As ever, even old and new style state pensions can be complex on death, and you should contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for help with state pensions on death.
