Yes, a child under 18 can be named to receive a pension after you die. How they are paid, and for how long, depends on the type of pension and the scheme's rules.

Anyone asking whether a child can be a beneficiary of a pension is usually asking three things at once: is it allowed, who actually collects the money for a minor, and what happens when the child grows up. The answers differ between a pension that pays an income, a lump sum, and a pot that is left invested.

If you want help applying this to your own scheme and family, send a short note via this page's form and a phone call from an FCA-authorised adviser follows, with no fee. For who else can be named, and how the labels (dependant, nominee, successor) differ, see pension nominee vs beneficiary; the wider picture is in the pension death benefits guide.

Under 18 or under 23: the age the tax rules use

Being under 18 does not stop a child being named on a pension. The age the tax rules work with is 23, and it governs which regular pensions a child can be paid rather than whether they can be chosen. What changes for a young child is the practical side: each scheme decides, under its own rules, how money for a minor is handed over. You record your wishes on a nomination or expression of wish form, covered step by step in how to fill in an expression of wish. MoneyHelper notes that most providers follow those wishes although the decision normally stays with them, so a child's name on the form is a preference, not a guarantee.

The test itself is in Finance Act 2004, Schedule 28, paragraph 15. Under its sub-paragraph (2) a member's child is a dependant while under 23. After that the child stays a dependant only if the scheme administrator considers that, when the member died, the child depended on the member because of physical or mental impairment.

A 2016 amendment widened and narrowed that at once. Paragraph 15(2A) makes any child of the member aged 23 or over a dependant as well, but paragraph 15(2B) switches (2A) off when deciding who is a dependant for paragraphs 16 to 17 and 27A (dependants' scheme pensions, dependants' annuities and the meaning of a nominee) and for paragraph 18 of Schedule 29 (charity lump sums). HMRC's Pensions Tax Manual sums up what is left: the wider meaning applies only to a dependants' short-term annuity bought after 15 September 2016 and to dependants' income withdrawal where the child's 23rd birthday fell after 15 September 2016. The manual also confirms that a legally adopted child counts as the member's child.

The nominee carve-out has a useful side effect. A child of 23 or over who is not impaired is not a dependant for nominee purposes, so can be named as a nominee and paid, for example, through nominee's drawdown. Where nothing valid is named at all, see what happens if no beneficiary is named.

Children's pensions that stop at 23

A dependants' scheme pension is the regular income a scheme can pay a child after a member's death. Because (2B) keeps the narrower test for it, HMRC's manual page on these pensions (PTM072110) says that "if the child is not a dependant because of physical or mental impairment, the pension must cease by age 23". The same page allows the start to be put off, for example because the dependant is still young, where the scheme rules or annuity terms permit it.

A dependants' annuity bought from an insurer follows paragraph 17. For a child it must be payable until the child ceases to be a dependant or dies, whichever comes first; the contract may also end it earlier if the child marries or enters a civil partnership. Unless the child is impaired, or a pre-2006 transitional rule applies, the point of ceasing to be a dependant is the 23rd birthday.

Defined benefit schemes work to the same line. GOV.UK says a pension from one can usually go only to a dependant, giving a child under 23 as an example, and that paying anyone else, where scheme rules permit, is an unauthorised payment taxed at up to 55%. Some schemes that existed before 6 April 2006 paid children's pensions beyond 23, and transitional provisions keep that for certain schemes, for example while the child continues in full-time education or vocational training. If your scheme predates 2006, ask whether they apply to it.

Lump sums and a child under 18: who receives the money

A lump sum is where age 23 matters least. HMRC's manual says that for an uncrystallised funds lump sum death benefit "the tax rules do not set any conditions on who can be paid", though the scheme's own rules may limit it. So for that kind of lump sum a child of any age can be paid in tax terms; whether the scheme will pay the money to the child directly is a separate matter.

That second question is answered by each scheme's rules. One documented example: a Pensions Ombudsman determination about the Teachers' Pension Scheme records that the notes sent with its expression of wish form said a death grant for a nominee under 18 would be paid to the child's legal guardian. It also records the scheme's own account that it would generally pay the surviving parent or, if the child lived elsewhere, could use its discretion to pay whoever had care of the child. That is one scheme's practice, not a general rule; the scheme's own benefits are covered in Teachers' Pension death benefits. Ask your scheme whether it would pay a parent, a guardian, trustees or a trust, and what proof it wants.

Money for a child can also raise questions about who looks after it, how it is taxed and whether it affects family benefits. Sort those out by telephone with the adviser who responds to the form on this page. Leaving a pension to a trust has its own rules, covered in can a pension beneficiary be a trust.

Tax on what a child receives, in brief

The tax depends mainly on the member's age at death and the type of payment, and GOV.UK sets it out for deaths under the current rules. If the member died under 75, most lump sums are tax-free unless they go above the member's lump sum and death benefit allowance, as is income from an annuity or from a drawdown fund set up or converted and first accessed from 6 April 2015; a lump sum paid more than two years after the provider is told of the death is taxed as income. If the member was 75 or over, the provider deducts Income Tax from lump sums, annuity income and drawdown money. A pension paid by the scheme itself is taxed as income at any age. GOV.UK's lump sum allowance page, read 20 October 2026, gives the lump sum and death benefit allowance as £1,073,100; a protected allowance may raise it.

For deaths on or after 6 April 2027, section 71 of the Finance Act 2026 starts the new inheritance tax rules on unused pensions; see pensions and inheritance tax. Each payment type is covered in how inherited pensions are taxed, and a pot kept invested in beneficiary flexi-access drawdown.

Questions people ask

Can a pension beneficiary be under 18?

Yes. Being under 18 does not prevent a child being named or paid. The scheme decides how money reaches a minor, so ask whether it pays a parent, guardian or trustees on the child's behalf.

Can children get a survivor's pension as well as a widow or widower?

Yes, where the scheme provides one. HMRC's manual says that where a member leaves more than one dependant, a pension may be paid to each, and a child's stops at 23 unless the child is impaired. Tax on the partner's pension is covered in whether a widow's pension is taxable.

Does a joint life annuity pay a child?

Only if the child was the person chosen when the annuity was bought: MoneyHelper says annuity income or a lump sum goes only to the people named at the outset. A child's annuity then has to stop once the child is no longer a dependant, normally at 23. Who can be the second life is covered in joint life annuities.

Can my child inherit if I name nobody?

That depends on the scheme's rules and on who it treats as a dependant; see what happens if no beneficiary is named.

Is a Junior SIPP the same thing?

No. A Junior SIPP is a pension someone opens for a child to save into, not a death benefit from your own pension, and naming a child on your form does not open one. See pensions for children.

Your next step

Your scheme's death benefit rules and expression of wish form show what it can do for a child. If the answer turns on your family, your pots and tax, the enquiry form here takes a short note about your scheme and children, and a call from an FCA-authorised adviser follows. Nothing is charged for it.

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