Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 9 December 2020 to Question 120078, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of making funds available to equalise Survivor Pension Benefits for people who are unable to enter into new marriages or co-habit with a partner as a result of the pre-2008 NHS Survivor Pension rules.

The NHS Pension Scheme does not provide for the automatic retention of a survivor pension on re-marriage or co-habitation where the Scheme member ceased pensionable employment before 1 April 2008. Arrangements are in place for continuing or restoring a pension if, for example, withdrawal would create severe financial hardship for the recipient.

Following a review by NHS Pension Scheme stakeholders, changes were made to survivor benefits for Scheme members with service extended to or beyond 1 April 2008, where a survivor pension became payable for life regardless of whether the recipient remarries, forms a civil partnership or lives with someone else as a spouse or partner. The Government’s position remains that benefit entitlements should normally be determined based on the rules applicable at the time the member served, to maintain fairness for active scheme members and the taxpayer.