363.As a result of changes originally enacted in the 1986 Social Security Act, the amount of additional pension a surviving spouse could expect to inherit was due to be halved in respect of a married person who died after 5 April 2000. The Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 included provision to make regulations that would provide for, among other things, the deferral of the start of the new rule to a later year, and the setting up of a scheme to determine who may suffer future financial loss as the result of incorrect information about the impending change.
364.This Act provides for the new rules to apply from October 2002 (but also provides that this date may be further postponed by regulations) and clarifies the eligibility criteria for the Inherited SERPS scheme.
Part II: Pensions. Background – State Second Pension and Occupational and Personal Pensions Protection of “inherited SERPS”