Subscriber OnlyYour MoneyQ&A

Can my wife get a widow’s pension alongside the old age pension when I die?

Q&A: couple who each qualify for State contributory pension worry about finances when one has gone

Sorting out what welfare payments you may be entitled to in old age can be confusing. Photograph: iStock
Sorting out what welfare payments you may be entitled to in old age can be confusing. Photograph: iStock
Dominic Coyle's picture
Dominic Coyle
Sun Jan 07 2024 - 12:55

My wife and I both have contributory pensions. When I die, is my then widow entitled to a widow’s pension as well as her own contributory pension?

Mr Q.C.

The simple answer is no. One of the conditions around the State widow(er)’s pension is that, generally, you cannot be in receipt of another State welfare payment at the same time.

There are exceptions, aren’t there always, but we’ll come to those.

READ MORE

But that does not mean that your wife might not benefit somewhat in terms of pension payment should you die

It might seem unfair that you cannot receive both payments. Clearly your widow – assuming you die before she does – will still have a number of fixed running costs for her home that would previously have been met by the pension paid to each of you. But certain costs will be lower by virtue of your no longer being around. And there would be a certain unfairness of two people in the same situation – i.e. living alone in older age – having entirely different financial resources funded by the State purely on the basis of one having had a spouse or partner and the other not.

The widow’s pension – these days formally known as the Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s (Contributory) Pension – has been around a long time in Ireland. It was first introduced back in 1936 at a time when welfare supports in general was much more parsimonious than they are these days.

Interestingly, widowers were not afforded the same support at all until 1994. And civil partners had to wait until 2011.

That’s not the only quirk. People who are divorced or have had a civil partnership dissolved but who would have been entitled to the pension had they not done so, retain the right to receive the pension if their former spouse or partner predeceases them – presuming they are not already getting a state pension or other welfare payment.

Eligibility

Essentially, this pension is paid on the basis that your spouse or partner has died and that one or other of you had enough social insurance (PRSI) contributions to qualify for the payment. Those without sufficient PRSI stamps need to look at the non-contributory widow(er)’s pension which is means tested.

The contributory version is paid regardless of other income, though clearly that income may be taxed if it exceeds the tax-free threshold.

To be eligible, apart from you having died and she living on her own (or at least not with another partner), she would need to meet two criteria based on either her social insurance (PRSI) record or yours.

First, one of you needs to have a minimum of 260 paid weekly PRSI stamps up to the time they retire or one of you dies.

Second, that same person needs to have either a minimum of 24 PRSI stamps per year over their working life or a minimum of 39 paid or credited weekly payments a year for either the three or five years before their death or hitting pension age, whichever happens first.

Given that you are both currently on contributory state pensions, it is clear that either of you would have received a widow(er)’s pension had the other died before you turned 66. However, as I said above, even though your wife could not receive both a State pension and a State widow’s pension in the event of your death, she might receive a widow’s pension instead of her current State pension.

That would arise where she qualifies for a State pension but not the full weekly amount – because of gaps in her PRSI record during her working life.

The full State contributory pension is paid at a weekly rate of €277.30 this year to anyone who had an average of 48 PRSI stamps per year of their working life or more – or 40 years of stamps under the alternative total contributions approach.

However, that weekly payment drops for those with fewer social insurance stamps. Under total contributions, it is done pro rata but in the more traditional system of payment bands, the payment falls to €271.90 a week for those with an average of 40-47 stamps per year, and then to €249.30 (30-39), €236.10 (20-29), €180.70 (15-19) and as low as €110.80 a week for those with an average of between 10 and 19 stamps a year.

The bands of the widow(er)’s pension are more generous. While the top payment of €277.30 still requires an average of 48 or more stamps per year, the next level – €271.90 a week – applies to anyone with an average of between 36 and 47 stamps while anyone with between a 24-35 stamp average receives €265.50.

If you’re working over the shorter average period – over three to five years – you get the maximum weekly payment as long as you are over the 39-stamp average

So if you had a fuller PRSI record than she does, it might be that she would receive the widow’s pension rather than the State pension. That should happen automatically for those affected but, if not, she would need to contact the Department of Social Protection.

The rules do get more complicated if you are relying on your spouse’s PRSI record and some of that relates to work they may have done in other EU states.

Not that it affects you, but getting back to those “exceptions” to the bar on receiving the widow(er)’s state contributory pension and other welfare payments, they include people in receipt of child benefit, a guardian’s payment or family income supplement – although the pension will be assessed as income in assessing eligibility for the last of those.

People in receipt of carer’s allowance, maternity benefit, adoptive benefit or health and safety benefit can also retain some of that money, while those on a blind pension are also eligible though they lose rights to certain other welfare payments, such as jobseeker’s.

Another quirk of the system is that you will lose any entitlement to the widow(er)’s pension while in prison, should you find yourself there for any reason.

That’s not the only way you can lose the payment. More relevant for more people, you will also cease to be eligible for the widow’s contributory pension if you start living with another person as partners – cohabiting in Revenue terms.

Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street Dublin 2, or by email to dominic.coyle@irishtimes.com. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice

READ NEXT