Reader can’t pay for mother’s funeral without her pension

Dear Becky

QMy mother, a former special needs teacher, passed away unexpectedly in January 2022. Her income came through her occupational pension from Teachers’ Pensions (about £600 per month), her state pension and disability benefit, amounting to 70pc of our joint household income.

Disabled myself and unable to work while nursing Mum, my disability benefit amounted to the other 30pc. I nursed Mum 24/7 for 12 years through her recovery first from a stroke, then a spinal injury and latterly cancer between March 2010 and January 2022. Prior to this she had been my carer.

Owing to my disability I’d been financially dependent on Mum since at least 1997. After Mum’s death, thinking I was doing the right thing, I rang Teachers’ Pensions to notify them. They immediately stopped all payments (despite their own online documentation stating they will continue to pay into someone’s estate for three months).

As a result I haven’t even been able to pay for Mum’s funeral – I had to apply for a handout from the Government. Even then I still owe £1,200.

More significantly, Teachers’ Pensions also denied having ever received the paperwork from Mum circa 200809 making me her nominee. I’m her surviving child, as well as next of kin. Teachers’ Pensions have offered no proof they have no such paperwork. Yet I remember Mum completing it and sending it off. I’m struggling to survive on PiP ( Personal Independence Payment), Universal Credit and the generosity of friends.

– Chris

Dear Chris

AThere is an overriding principle applying to Teachers’ Pensions that the pension is intended to support the individual member in their later years, and therefore that the payments should stop when they pass away. There can be death grants that are payable to nominees when a death. It certainly sounds like these circumstances apply to you.

Information on applying for dependants’ pensions is usually provided with the paperwork for dealing with a member’s death.

You don’t mention having received this paperwork or filling it out. If you didn’t receive this paperwork or no longer have it, it’s worth letting them know.

I suggest contacting Teachers’ Pensions to inform them if you didn’t receive the relevant paperwork at the time for applying for the dependant’s pension. You also don’t mention if you have formally started the process of appealing against the Teachers’ Pensions’ decision – there’s more information about that on their website. But before you do this, you need to try to get hold of that information about how you can apply for the dependant’s pension, as it sounds like this may have been missed.

If you are able to get hold of it and follow the process, you may get a clearer picture about to what you might be entitled.

Pensions Doctor

Becky O’Connor is director of public affairs for PensionBee, the online pension provider. Write to Pensions Doctor with your pension problem: Email questions to

pensionsdoctor@telegraph.co.uk