Cohabiting partners’ pension
LGPS Access and Fairness Scheme changes: fairer survivor benefits
From 1 April 2026, survivor pensions will be calculated more consistently to ensure equal treatment regardless of the sex of the member or their survivor.
Some survivor pensions will be increased as more of the member’s service before April 2014 will now count. Some survivor pensions will become payable for the first time – this is most likely to affect male survivors of female members who left the LGPS before April 1988.
The changes apply to deaths dating back to:
- 5 December 2005 for opposite sex marriages and same sex civil partnerships
- 13 March 2014 for same sex marriages
- 31 December 2019 for opposite sex civil partnerships.
Some cohabiting partners’ pensions may also increase if the member died between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2014.
If you've a cohabiting partner, of either opposite or same sex, they may get a survivors’ pension on your death. For a pension to be paid to a cohabiting survivor you must've been in the LGPS from 1 April 2008.
All the following rules must have applied for a continuous period of at least two years on the date of your death:
- you and your cohabiting partner are, and have been, free to marry each other or enter into a civil partnership
- you and your cohabiting partner have been living together as if you were husband and wife, or civil partners
- neither you or your cohabiting partner have been living with someone else as if husband and wife or civil partners
- either your cohabiting partner is and has been, financially dependent on you, or you are and have been, financially interdependent on each other
You don't have to fill in a form to nominate a cohabiting partner for a cohabiting partners’ pension. However, we'll need proof to check that the rules for a cohabiting partners’ pension are met.
Membership from 1 April 2014
For membership built up from 1 April 2014 to your date of death, the pension due is equal to 1/160th of your pensionable pay (or assumed pensionable pay where applicable) times the period of your membership in the scheme after 31 March 2014, plus 49/160ths of the amount of any pension credited to your pension account following a transfer of pension rights into the scheme from another pension scheme or arrangement, plus a pension equal to 1/160th of your assumed pensionable pay each year of membership you would have built up from your date of death to your normal pension age.
Membership before 1 April 2014
For membership built up before 1 April 2014 the pension due is equal to 1/160th of your final pay times the period of your membership in the scheme after 5 April 1988 up to 31 March 2014, plus any of your membership before 6 April 1988 for which you have paid additional contributions so that it counts towards an eligible cohabiting partners’ pension.
Some parts of your pension are not counted. This includes extra pension you paid for by making additional pension contributions. Any extra pension paid for through a Qualifying Additional Pension Arrangement (QAPA) does increase the pension paid to your partner.
