Pension survivor benefits after divorce normally stop: a former spouse is not usually eligible for a widow's or widower's pension from your workplace scheme.

If you are divorcing, or have divorced, it is worth finding out what your ex-spouse's death, or your own, would now mean for the pension income that used to pass to a surviving husband or wife. The answer sits mainly in each scheme's rules and in any court order, not in one national law. MoneyHelper's free guidance on pensions and divorce is a sensible first stop for the basics. Several schemes plus a settlement make survivor rights hard to untangle alone, so the form on this page, a short one, lets an FCA-authorised adviser hear your situation and phone you at no cost.

Do you keep widow's pension benefits after divorce?

Usually not. Once the divorce is final, the person you were married to has normally stopped being your "spouse" for the purposes of a scheme's survivor benefits. Whether they keep any claim depends on the scheme's wording and on what the court ordered, so check both.

The Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 guide is blunt about it: "A former spouse from whom you have divorced, or former civil partner, if you have legally dissolved the civil partnership, is not eligible to receive a pension." Separation alone makes no difference there. The same guide says that a former spouse "from whom you have not divorced" is still eligible, even if you have started a new relationship.

The NHS Pension Scheme works from the same starting point. NHS Business Services Authority's 2015 members guide says dependants' pensions are payable to an eligible "spouse, civil partner, qualifying Scheme partner or dependent child". Scheme-by-scheme detail is in pension death benefits, armed forces pension death benefits and NHS pension death benefits. Older, closed schemes and the separate Scottish NHS and police schemes can differ, so read the guide for your own scheme.

Nominations and lump sums: what to update

A survivor's pension and a lump sum on death are separate benefits, and the lump sum is often steered by a nomination form. The NHS guide says that "Any lump sum due will be paid to your spouse, registered civil partner or qualifying Scheme partner. If you do not want this to happen you should nominate someone else to receive the benefit." It adds that a nomination can be made, changed or cancelled at any time, using the scheme's own forms.

Divorce can also upset a nomination already on file. The Armed Forces guide warns that "your nomination may be invalid if you divorce". Do not assume an old form still works, or that it names who you now want. Ask each scheme, in writing, what it holds for you and whether it is still valid. Group life cover and death-in-service pensions through an employer are covered by workplace pension death benefits.

If you are the former spouse and you thought you were named, ask the scheme directly. For how nominations and divorce interact across several schemes, an adviser can talk you through it on the phone.

What a court can do instead of a widow's pension

A court in England and Wales has three main tools for pensions: sharing, earmarking (attachment) and offsetting. None of them gives an ex-spouse a widow's pension as such. Sharing and earmarking compared sets out the difference.

Sharing. A percentage of the pension moves to the former spouse as a pension credit in their own name. In the Home Office guide to the 2015 police scheme in England and Wales, the member is told: "Your pension, your lump sum and survivors’ benefits will be reduced." The same guide says the ex-spouse holds pension credit benefits in the scheme in their own right, payable from State Pension age, so in that scheme the share does not depend on outliving the member. More in what a pension sharing order is.

Earmarking and death lump sums. Section 25C of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 covers any lump sum payable when the pension holder dies. Where the member has power to nominate who receives it, the court may "require the party with pension rights to nominate the other party in respect of the whole or part of that sum". Section 25C applies in England and Wales only (Scotland has its own divorce law: see pensions on divorce in Scotland), and it cannot be used for an arrangement that "is the subject of a pension sharing order in relation to the marriage". The police guide lists a share of any death grant paid if the member dies in service among the things an earmarking order may give an ex-spouse, but it also says that "Pension payments to your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner cease on your death", so in that scheme earmarked income stops when the member dies rather than continuing as a survivor's pension.

For how a court weighs everything else, see pension on divorce and pension offsetting.

Should you delay the final order?

This is the timing trap. If a pension sharing order has been made but has not yet taken effect when the pension holder dies, the former spouse may have lost the status they needed. A practitioners' guide published by the Nuffield Foundation (second edition, 2024) says that if the holder dies before the order takes effect, the claimant "is not a widow or widower entitled to death benefits", and tells lawyers to "consider carefully with the client whether to delay applying for the Divorce Final Order until 28 days after the pension order has been made."

The guide's authors call the delay sensible practice in most circumstances, though when to apply remains a decision for you and your solicitor. With a sharing order on the table, timing deserves a proper conversation. Enquiries from the short form here are answered by an FCA-authorised adviser, and when to apply for the final order is just the sort of question to raise. The full picture is in pension sharing after the decree absolute, and what happens if your ex-spouse dies before implementation covers the gap itself.

Does an ex-spouse's State Pension record help you?

Mostly your State Pension stays tied to your own record. GOV.UK says: "Your new State Pension is usually based on your own National Insurance record. In some cases you might inherit State Pension or increase it through a spouse or civil partner." Whether either applies after a divorce depends on your own dates and circumstances, which State Pension after divorce works through. To get a figure for the pension you might be sharing, see how to get a pension valuation for divorce.

Frequently asked questions

Can a divorced wife claim a widow's pension?

Generally not from a scheme that treats only a current spouse as eligible. Her rights, if any, come from a court order such as a pension share, or from the scheme's own rules, so ask the scheme.

Is a separated spouse still eligible?

Often yes, because separation is not divorce. In the Armed Forces 2015 scheme, a spouse you have separated from but not divorced remains eligible, even if you have a new partner. Other schemes word it their own way.

Does a pension share count as a survivor's pension?

No. It is a slice of the pension in the former spouse's own name, not a benefit that starts when the member dies.

Who gets my death lump sum if I never update my nomination?

That depends on the scheme and on any court order. Write to the scheme to confirm what it holds on file.

What happens to an earmarking order if my ex remarries?

In the police 2015 scheme, the Home Office guide says an earmarking order against pension payments lapses automatically if the ex-spouse remarries or forms a civil partnership, and the member's full pension is restored; lump sums are caught only if the order so directs. Check the wording of your own order and scheme, and see how to claim a widow's pension if you are the surviving spouse.

Small print in each scheme decides what a survivor receives; if yours is unclear, the call-back request form here reaches an FCA-authorised adviser who will go through it alongside you.

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