A widow's pension can follow you abroad: State Pension is paid worldwide, but yearly rises and new Bereavement Support Payment claims vary by country.

A widow's pension in the UK while living abroad usually means three different payments, each with its own rules for people overseas. Widowed readers abroad often have a work pension, a State Pension question and a tax question at once, and a no-charge call with an FCA-authorised adviser, set up by this page's form, can take them in turn.

Which widow's pension can be paid abroad?

There is no longer a State widow's pension, so the question is really about three things that can follow a death. Whether each reaches a reader living overseas varies:

  • Bereavement Support Payment is the DWP's payment to bereaved partners. It has residence conditions, covered next.
  • Inherited State Pension is a top-up to your own State Pension that only some surviving spouses and civil partners get. It can be paid abroad like the rest of a State Pension.
  • A survivor's pension from a work or personal scheme is paid by the scheme, and its practice for members overseas is set by the scheme.

The steps for making each claim are in the claiming guide; this page deals only with what changes when you live outside the UK.

Can I claim Bereavement Support Payment if I live abroad?

Possibly, though the test looks at where you were living when your partner died. GOV.UK says you must have been under State Pension age, married to your partner, civil partners with them, or living together as a couple, and "living in the UK or a country that pays bereavement benefits". Your partner needs a qualifying National Insurance record, or to have died from a work accident or work-caused disease, and GOV.UK says to claim even if you are unsure about their contributions.

The usual deadline is 21 months from the death, and 3 months for the full amount. Someone abroad claims by calling the International Pension Centre, on +44 (0) 191 206 9390 according to GOV.UK, rather than using the Bereavement Service number.

GOV.UK's guide to claiming benefits abroad names where a new claim may be possible: an EEA country, Switzerland or Gibraltar, or, outside the EEA, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Channel Islands, Israel, Jamaica, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, New Zealand, the Philippines, Serbia, Turkey and the USA. Rates and conditions may vary by country.

Is an inherited State Pension frozen if I live abroad?

It rises, or stays frozen, on the same country rules as the rest of your State Pension. The Pensions Act 2014 makes inherited Additional State Pension a state pension in its own right, and the State Pension Regulations 2015 stop yearly increases for an overseas resident entitled to a state pension under that part of the Act. What a widowed person might inherit is limited to a few items under the new State Pension rules, each tied to dates and to the marriage or civil partnership; inheriting Additional State Pension explains the main one. Remarrying before State Pension age ends the chance of inheriting, and the remarriage page goes into that, while how long a widow's pension lasts covers duration.

Once there is a State Pension to pay, the yearly rise reaches only some residents abroad. GOV.UK lists the European Economic Area, Gibraltar, Switzerland and states that have signed a social security agreement with the UK, but residents of Canada and New Zealand are left out. Live anywhere else and the amount stays fixed, which is what "frozen" means, until a return to the UK brings it up to the current rate.

Your own State Pension abroad is in the expat State Pension guide, and moving abroad with a UK pension covers the rest of a retirement plan. If your late partner's record might leave you something extra, an FCA-authorised adviser can outline what could apply, free, after a call-back you request on the form here.

Are survivor pensions from workplace and public-service schemes paid overseas?

Each scheme decides how it pays survivors, so there is no single rule. Death benefits are explained scheme by scheme for the NHS, teachers, the civil service, local government, police and the armed forces. Put these questions to the scheme in writing, and keep the reply:

  • Will you pay into a bank account in my country, in which currency and at what cost?
  • Do you require a life certificate or similar proof that I am alive, how often, and who may sign it?
  • What happens to payments if a form is not returned in time?
  • Whom do I tell when my address, bank details or tax residence changes?

For comparison only, this is how the State Pension is paid overseas; it is not a rule for any scheme. GOV.UK says it can be paid into a bank in the country you live in or into a UK bank or building society, and that payments abroad are converted at the exchange rate at the time, with a 0.39% conversion charge before payment. You may be sent a "life certificate" form to sign, and payments "may be suspended" if you do not return it. A work pension has its own terms, so these details are a prompt for your questions, not a promise about what a scheme will do.

Is a widow's pension taxed in the UK or where I live?

In outline, you can be taxed by the UK and by the country you live in, and the two do not always agree. GOV.UK says UK income is usually taxable here even for people who live abroad, that an agreement between the two countries (a double taxation agreement) can reduce or remove the double charge, and that "most UK government (such as civil service) pensions are only taxed in the UK". Depending on the agreement, relief may come before tax is taken or as a refund afterwards.

HMRC's PAYE manual says a pension an employer pays to a former employee's dependants is taxable as pension income whether or not the person receiving it lives in the UK. Its NT code, under which no tax is taken through PAYE, is for a pension from work done abroad, paid to someone non-resident in a country with a double taxation agreement, and even then the pension stays taxable here through Self Assessment unless the agreement exempts it. Which country taxes what depends on your residence and on the treaty, so the position where you live needs advice there. The tax treatment of the payments themselves is in is a widow's pension taxable.

Widows abroad: common worries about payment and paperwork

Do I tell the DWP if I move abroad after being widowed?

For a State Pension, GOV.UK points anyone already retired and thinking of moving abroad to the International Pension Centre, and says a new address or bank details are reported to it by phone or in writing, not by email.

What if I live in Jersey, Ireland, Mauritius or Australia?

Ireland is in the EEA, so a State Pension paid there usually rises each year and a new Bereavement Support Payment claim may be possible. Jersey is on GOV.UK's list of agreement countries where the State Pension usually rises, and the Channel Islands are on its Bereavement Support Payment list. Mauritius is on the yearly-increase list but not the Bereavement Support Payment one. Australia is on neither, so a State Pension paid there gets no yearly increases.

Does Northern Ireland count as living abroad?

No, it is part of the UK. The main difference GOV.UK notes is that Bereavement Support Payment has separate phone and postal routes to apply there.

Can I get Bereavement Support Payment if I move abroad later?

If you are already getting it when you move, GOV.UK says it carries on, whichever country you move to. A new claim from abroad depends on where you live, as set out in the Bereavement Support Payment section above.

Can my State Pension be paid into someone else's account?

GOV.UK says the State Pension can be paid into someone else's account if you have their permission and keep to the account's terms. Other schemes set their own rules.

Pulling the strands together

You can ask the International Pension Centre or the scheme directly. Whichever route you take, the form on this page also remains open to you as a way of reaching an FCA-authorised adviser, with a call-back at no charge.

Sources: GOV.UK guides to Bereavement Support Payment, the new State Pension, retiring abroad, claiming benefits abroad and UK income taxed while living overseas; DWP's list of countries where the State Pension rises; the Pensions Act 2014 and State Pension Regulations 2015; HMRC's PAYE manual, PAYE81750.