Section 56 inserts a new section – section 48BB – into the Contributions and Benefits Act. This provides for the amount of Additional Pension (State Earnings Related Pension – SERPS) that widows and widowers should receive when they reach pensionable age, based on their spouses’ contributions.
Legislation is already in place to ensure that those who are widowed, whether men or women, are able to use “substitution” provisions to help them achieve a basic Retirement Pension if their own contribution record during the period of marriage is inferior to that of their spouse. Section 48 of the Contributions and Benefits Act provides for circumstances in which a former spouse’s contributions can be treated as if they were those of the pensioner, and section 52 contains additional provision for surviving spouses.
Under the existing scheme, widows who receive Widowed Mother’s Allowance or Widow’s Pension are paid an amount of Additional Pension with their weekly benefit, based on their husbands’ contribution records. This benefit continues until they reach pensionable age. They are then entitled to a “Category B” Retirement Pension (i.e. a pension based on their husband’s National Insurance contributions) paid at the same level.
The new scheme is different, in that Bereavement Allowance is to be paid for 52 weeks only, and without any Additional Pension (see commentary on section 55 of this Act). So, unless they are still receiving Bereavement Allowance or Widowed Parent’s Allowance when they reach pensionable age, future widows and widowers will have a period before retirement when they are not receiving any bereavement benefit or Additional Pension.
But the intention is that, once they do reach pensionable age, and provided they have not remarried, they should have the same amount of Category B Retirement Pension as if they had been receiving a benefit with Additional Pension continuously since their date of bereavement. That is to say, their Retirement Pension should be exactly the same as if they had been claiming under the current system. Therefore, this section provides for the same entitlement rules, but by reference to the new bereavement benefits.
Commentary Commentary Section 56: Additional Pension