§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the advice he gives to those(a) public and (b) private pension schemes which will allow a recipient to keep a widow's pension in the event of re-marriage. [172853]
§ Malcolm WicksIn the private sector, provision of widows' and widowers' benefits is a matter for pension scheme rules. It is up to trustees to decide what information is given to members. Where a scheme is contracted out, it must provide for widows' and 553W widowers' benefits, but it is down to individual schemes to decide whether such payment should cease on re-marriage
Most public service schemes have statutory rules which require widows' and widowers' pensions to terminate on re-marriage or cohabitation.
The Local Government Pension Scheme introduced widows' and widowers' pensions for life from April 1998.
Since October 2002 the new Civil Service pension scheme has provided for survivor pensions to be paid to unmarried partners; the costs of these benefits are being met by higher member contributions. At the same time the requirement to terminate widows' and widowers' pension on remarriage or cohabitation was removed.