Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the potential costs of amending the Principal Civil Service Pensions Classic Scheme to grant full survivors pensions rights to those who retired before 1 October 2002.

The pensions of widows, widowers and surviving civil partners, under the Classic section of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS), cease if they remarry or cohabit. In 2018, the Government Actuary’s Department estimated the extra cost of paying all survivor pensions, regardless of remarriage or cohabitation and when it occurred. The estimated extra cost in 2018 was around £550m for reinstating pensions that had already ceased and an annual future cost of around £30m for stopping the practice going forward. The estimate was a simplified approximation based on an earlier estimate done in 2006.

Under the Classic section of the PCSPS, survivors’ pensions are only payable to a widow, widower or surviving civil partner. The cost of extending survivor benefits to unmarried partners under Classic has not been estimated explicitly but, in 2018, the Government Actuary's Department estimated that the total capital cost of extending such benefits across all public service pension schemes (including the PCSPS) would be £2.5 - 4.5bn.

The Classic section was costed, and contribution rates set, on the basis of provisions which reflected social attitudes in 1972. Changes to the survivor pension arrangements from 1 October 2002, when the Premium section of the PCSPS was introduced, were paid for by active members. It would not be appropriate to extend these to members who retired before that date, as successive Governments have concluded that retrospective improvements of this kind to public service pensions should not be made at taxpayers expense.