Defined Benefit Pension¶
A defined benefit (DB) pension is a workplace pension where the employer promises a specific income for life, calculated from the member's salary and years of pensionable service. Common formulas use either final salary at retirement or a career-average revalued salary. Public-sector schemes (NHS, teachers, civil service, local government, armed forces, police, firefighters) are almost all DB; private-sector DB schemes are now mostly closed to new members but pay millions of existing members in retirement.
When a DB member dies, the scheme typically pays a survivor's pension to a spouse, civil partner, or registered cohabiting partner, calculated as a percentage of the member's pension — usually 50% but sometimes 60% or higher depending on the scheme. The survivor's pension is paid for life and indexed in line with the scheme's normal indexation rules. It is taxable as income in the recipient's hands. [source: gov-uk/tax-on-pension-death-benefits-2026-04-29.html]
Schemes also pay benefits where the member dies before retirement (death-in-service):
- A lump sum of typically 2 to 4 times annual salary, paid at trustee discretion under a nomination form.
- A deferred survivor's pension based on the service the member had built up by death.
Children's pensions are often payable to dependent children, usually to age 18 or 23 if in full-time education.
Tax treatment of DB death benefits follows the same age-75 rule as defined contribution pensions: lump sums for deaths before age 75 are normally tax-free (subject to the lump sum and death benefit allowance); on or after age 75, the recipient pays Income Tax at their marginal rate. [source: gov-uk/tax-on-pension-death-benefits-2026-04-29.html]
DB benefits cannot be transferred out of the scheme after the member's death, and the survivor cannot take a lump sum in place of the survivor's pension other than in narrow trivial-commutation circumstances. The first call after a death is to the scheme administrator (named on annual benefit statements or traceable through the Pension Tracing Service).
Last verified: 29 April 2026 against gov.uk/tax-on-pension-death-benefits and published industry guidance.