‘Will state pension pass to my wife?’

QI have read your column with much interest recently and wonder if you would have a moment to spare to provide me with some elementary guidance.

I am a long retired Army officer – divorced about 21 years ago and married again just over two years ago.

My now-wife lived and worked only in South Africa until last year, and is now the holder of a British residence permit, en route to obtaining full citizenship in a few years. She is 50 years old and in the final stages of finding gainful employment.

I am in receipt of two formal pensions: a military pension on which I have recently obtained a forecast of what she would receive on my demise and a normal state pension. I have been totally unsuccessful in finding out whether or not she would be entitled to any part of my state pension in the same circumstance.

Are you able to provide me with some guidance? Thank you.

– Ian

Dear Ian,

AI’m sorry to say that the very short answer to your question is that your wife is almost certainly not entitled to your state pension. You say you are “long retired”, which makes me think you probably became eligible for your state pension before April 6 2016.

Had you been married to your wife before this date, she would have been in line to receive some of the pension. But as you married after, even though ( presumably) you retired before that date on the old system, she would not be eligible for it.

Even if you retired after this date, she still would not be eligible, unfortunately, because under the new state pension system, spouses do not inherit any pension when their partner passes away, as state pension entitlement is now built up solely on an individual basis. If your wife starts working soon, she has the opportunity to build up some state pension in her own right – possibly 17 years’ worth if she works from now right up to her entitlement age (assuming state pension age rises to 77 by March 2028) and earns above the qualifying earnings limit of £6,240.

She would get 1/35 of the full new state pension for every qualifying year she works. At current rates, and assuming 17 years of qualifying earnings, that would mean an annual pension of £99 a week, or £5,150 a year. If she was still happily working, she would not have to start claiming her state pension at 67. Instead, she could defer taking it and bump it up to a higher amount in the process.

Through working, if your wife earns more than £10,000 a year, she might also be able to build up some private pension in her own name through being auto- enrolled in an employer pension scheme.

If your wife earns less than this in her job, she could still opt in to the work pension scheme, but would have to sort this herself – it wouldn’t happen automatically.

If you pass away before your wife and her income from all her pensions is classed as low, she could be in line to receive Pension Credit, which, as well as boosting incomes, acts as a gateway to other benefits.