Pension after death

fjon

I am wondering if someone familiar with this could help confirm my understanding is correct.

My mum was a secondary teacher, and retired about 10 years ago. My understanding is that at retirement, she would have received a lump sum, and then would have received fortnightly pension payments on top of that.

She passed away recently, so my understanding is that if she had a spouse or children under 18 they would have received some of her pension. Other than that, the payments cease and nothing is due to her estate.

Does this sound correct?

spurious

I can only go on my own family experience.

My father who was a teacher retired. He got a lump sum and a fornightly pension and following his death, my mother continued to receive a portion of his pension (I think half, but do not quote me on that).

I don't know about children. None of us were under 18.

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340198/pension-after-death

Yes, correct.

That is broadly how all PS pensions work.

fjon

Thanks all, was able to talk to Dept of Education and confirmed this as well. The pension payments cease on date of death and the only money that passes to the estate is if any of the lump sum paymnent is still in the person's bank account.

Treppen

Might be a shot in the dark, but could the seperate Spouse and Child Pension scheme be applicable? There's a lot to pick apart on the criteria just from my own reading here. From what I can gather if you continue to make payments into it even after retirement then there might be something (that's just me glancing over the webpage).

https://www.publicservicepensions.gov.ie/en/topic/spouse-and-childrens-pension-scheme/#:~:text=Spouses'%20and%20Children's%20Pension%20Scheme%20members%20are%20required%20to%20pay,source%20on%20a%20continuous%20basis.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340198/pension-after-death

It does. Lots of pension schemes provide a survivor's pension to a widow/er and sometimes also to any surviving minor children. But those pensions, if provided, go directly to the people entitled to them; they do not go to the executor, are not paid into the estate account, and do not form part of the estate.

The primary pension due to the deceased ceases on death. If for some reason the pension was in arrears and there were instalments that had fallen due but had not been paid, they would remain due and they would form part of the estate, when received. But that would be fairly rare, I think.

witchgirl26

I can only speak from my experience with my dad. Now this was a fair while ago but during his time as a teacher he paid into what was then called the "Widows & Orphans fund" on top of his normal pension contributions. This meant that on his passing, my mam was automatically entitled to 50% of his pension going forward. None of us were under 18 so didn't apply to us. My understanding was that without having paid into this, my mam wouldn't have been entitled to his pension.

Ted222

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340198/pension-after-death

You’re entirely correct.

The lump sum is paid in a single transaction so it’s highly unlikely there would be any residual payment due.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945027#Comment_121945027

Yes. Back in the late middle ages, public sector pensions were provided for the worker only; on the worker's death, the pension ceased.

Public sector unions lobbied about this, and eventually secured the introduction of survivors' pensions for widows and minor children. But these were part-funded by additional contributions to be paid by the worker. Unmarried workers and workers who were already widowed objected to paying extra contributions for a benefit that would never be relevant to their circumstances, so the supplementary scheme for widows and orphans was made voluntary; you could opt out, not pay the extra contributions, and not have the widows/orphans pensions.

I'm pretty sure that at some poin they rationalised and and consolidated the two schemes and, from that time, all new hires were in a scheme that would pay widows/orphans pensions, if you died leaving a widow or an orphan. But there would have been a cohort of existing workers who had opted out when that was allowed, and their arrangements continued as agreed with them.

witchgirl26

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121948167#Comment_121948167

Ah ok. Like I said, I didn't know the ins & outs of it as my dad retired while I was quite young. I only knew that when he passed my mam was entitled to half his pension because he'd paid in. There had been a lot of messing to do with it as they'd cancelled his pension based solely on seeing the death notice in the paper & not any formal communication. And he had quite a common name so massively open to error there.

Treppen

The op's parent could have paid into it.

Please read https://www.asti.ie/your-employment/faqs/frequently-asked-questions-on-pension-and-retirement/#h_9170415291521597412596455