LGPS death grant and survivor pensions

If you die while paying into the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in England and Wales, the scheme pays a lump sum death grant of three times your annual pay, plus pensions for your spouse, civil partner or eligible cohabiting partner and for eligible children. You are covered from the first day of membership. The grant also applies in lower amounts if you have left with a deferred pension or are already drawing a pension.

The death grant if you are paying in

For an active member the grant is three times annual pay, based on what the scheme calls assumed pensionable pay. It does not matter how long you have been a member. If you pay in-house additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) through the LGPS, the value of that AVC fund is paid as well.

If a medical practitioner certifies that you were working reduced contractual hours because of the illness that led to your death, assumed pensionable pay is based on what you would have earned without the reduction, which raises the grant. If you also hold a deferred benefit or a pension from an earlier period of membership, the grant is the greater of the earlier grants added together and three times your pay at death.

If you have left or are retired

A death grant is also paid if you have left but not yet taken your pension, or if you are receiving your pension and died within a set period.

Your position	Grant
Deferred, left after 31 March 2008	Five times your deferred annual pension
Deferred, left before 1 April 2008	Three times your deferred annual pension
Retired, left after 31 March 2008, died within 10 years of pension starting	Ten times your annual pension, less pension and lump sum already paid
Retired, left 1 April 1998 to 31 March 2008, died within five years	Five times your annual pension, less pension already paid

If you left before 1 April 1998 the calculation is more complex, and the fund will give an estimate. If you hold more than one deferred benefit, a grant is paid from each, unless you are also an active member, in which case the higher of the deferred grants and three times your active pay applies.

Who receives the grant

The local pension fund has absolute discretion over who gets the lump sum. It can pay the people you name on your expression of wish form, your personal representatives (the people dealing with your estate) or anyone who appears to have been, at any time, a relative or dependant. Your form guides the fund and does not bind it.

Update your nomination whenever your family circumstances change. Some funds let you do this online. If you left the LGPS before 1 April 2014, any AVC lump sum has to be paid to your estate.

Pensions for partners and children

A spouse, civil partner or eligible cohabiting partner receives part of your pension for the rest of their life. The share depends on when the pension was built up:

• 30.625 per cent of the pension from April 2014 onwards
• 37.5 per cent of the pension built up between April 2008 and March 2014
• 50 per cent of the pension built up before April 2008

If you die in service, the partner’s pension also includes part of the increase you would have received if you had retired on ill-health grounds. Extra pension bought with additional pension contributions is not counted, though extra bought through a qualifying additional pension arrangement is. A cohabiting partner’s pension is generally based on membership after 5 April 1988, unless you elected before 1 April 2014 to pay extra to count earlier membership. The amount may be lower if you married or entered a civil partnership after leaving the scheme.

Eligible children also receive a pension. The amount depends on how many there are and whether a partner’s pension is being paid. Your fund can give figures.

What to check

Ask your pension fund, or look at your online account, for the expression of wish form and check the name on it. Read your annual benefit statement, which shows the death-in-service figure. If you have been in the LGPS before, ask whether the earlier membership has been joined to your current account, since it affects which grant applies. This is general information. The fund’s own guides and the LGPS member site give figures for your personal situation, and the ill-health retirement guide covers the other protection the scheme offers while you work.