Pensions After a Death¶

A pension is often the largest single asset in an estate and the one most likely to be misunderstood. The rules differ by pension type, by the deceased's age at death, and by what paperwork the deceased had on file. The same pot can be tax-free or fully taxable depending on whether the member died one day before or one day after their 75th birthday. The same employer benefits can pass to a spouse, to nominated beneficiaries, or back into the scheme depending on what form was last completed.

This guide covers the four pensions that need to be considered after a UK death: the State Pension, Additional State Pension (SERPS / S2P), defined benefit workplace pensions, and defined contribution pensions. It also covers the Pension Tracing Service for finding forgotten pots and the nomination form that determines who receives DC death benefits.

If you can only do one thing today: Phone every pension provider the deceased held a pension with and ask two questions. First: what is the death benefit, and how is it being paid. Second: was a nomination form completed, and if so who is named. The answer to the second question often determines whether the money goes to the people the deceased intended, or whether the scheme trustees decide. [source: gov-uk/tax-on-pension-death-benefits-2026-04-29.html]

The State Pension does not pass on¶

The basic State Pension (or new State Pension, for those reaching pension age from 6 April 2016) is a personal entitlement that ends at the holder's death. There is no lump sum, no carry-over, no transferable cash value. The Pension Service stops payments from the date of death and reclaims any overpayments made into a bank account after that date. Tell Us Once notifies the Pension Service automatically if used at registration.

A separate, smaller payment — the Bereavement Support Payment — is available to surviving spouses, civil partners, and cohabiting partners who meet the eligibility rules. This is covered in Stopping benefits after a death and is administered by the DWP rather than the Pension Service.

Additional State Pension: SERPS and S2P inheritance¶

The Additional State Pension is the earnings-related top-up paid on top of the basic State Pension to people who reached pension age before April 2016. It exists in two forms — SERPS (1978–2002) and S2P (2002–2016) — and a portion of it is inheritable by a surviving spouse or civil partner. [source: gov-uk/additional-state-pension-2026-04-29.html]

The proportion inheritable depends on which scheme accrued the entitlement and when the deceased died:

State Second Pension (S2P): up to 50% inheritable.
SERPS, deceased died before 6 October 2002: up to 100% inheritable.
SERPS, deceased died on or after 6 October 2002: a sliding scale tied to the deceased's date of birth — 100% for those born on or before 5 October 1937 (men) or 5 October 1942 (women), tapering down to 50% for those born from 6 October 1945 (men) or 6 July 1950 (women) onwards. [source: gov-uk/additional-state-pension-2026-04-29.html]

A combined cap applies to the total Additional State Pension a survivor can receive across their own and any inherited element. For 2025–26 this cap is £230.54 per week. Amounts above the cap are not paid. [source: gov-uk/additional-state-pension-2026-04-29.html]

The Pension Service does not volunteer this information; it has to be requested. The standard call is to 0800 731 0469 to ask for a check of the deceased's Additional State Pension record and the survivor's resulting entitlement. Where the survivor has not yet reached State Pension age, the inherited element is added to their own State Pension once they qualify.

People who reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016 are paid under the new flat-rate State Pension, where most pre-2016 SERPS or S2P entitlement carries across into the protected element. Inheritance of the new State Pension is much more limited; in most cases nothing additional passes to a surviving spouse beyond what they would have received in their own right.

Defined benefit workplace pensions¶

A defined benefit (DB) pension pays a defined income for life, calculated from salary and years of service. Most public-sector schemes (NHS, teachers, civil service, local government, police, armed forces) are DB; many older private-sector schemes are too, although most are now closed to new members.

When a DB member dies, the scheme typically pays a survivor's pension to a spouse, civil partner, or registered cohabiting partner — usually 50% of the member's pension, sometimes 60% or higher, paid for life and indexed in line with the scheme's normal rules. The survivor's pension is taxable as income at the recipient's marginal rate.

For deaths before retirement (still working, contributing to the scheme), most DB schemes also pay a death-in-service lump sum, typically 2 to 4 times annual salary, plus a deferred survivor's pension based on the service the member had built up. The lump sum is paid at trustee discretion under a nomination form, so the form matters: where one is on file, the trustees usually pay the named beneficiary; where none is, the trustees decide.

For deaths after retirement (already drawing the pension), the survivor's pension begins automatically and is processed by the scheme administrator on receipt of the death certificate. The schedule of survivor benefits — exact percentage, indexation, whether children's pensions apply — is set by the scheme rules and varies materially between schemes. The first call to the scheme administrator establishes the entitlement.

DB benefits cannot be transferred out after the member's death, and the survivor cannot take a lump sum in place of the survivor's pension other than through narrow trivial-commutation rules. Children's pensions are payable to dependent children up to a stated age (typically 18, or 23 if in full-time education), with the exact rules in the scheme handbook.

Defined contribution pensions and the age-75 cliff¶

A defined contribution (DC) pension is a pot of money the deceased's own and employer contributions were invested in. Personal pensions, stakeholder pensions, SIPPs, and the bulk of modern auto-enrolment workplace pensions are all DC. The pot is the member's own money held in a tax-advantaged wrapper.

On death, the death benefit is the value of whatever remained in the pot at the date of death (or the date the provider is notified, depending on scheme rules). The provider pays this to whoever the member named on a nomination form — or, where no nomination is on file, to whomever the trustees decide under their discretionary powers.

The tax treatment turns on the deceased's age at death:

Death before age 75: the lump sum is normally paid free of income tax, subject to the deceased's lump sum and death benefit allowance. The recipient can take it as cash or roll it into their own pension. [source: gov-uk/tax-on-pension-death-benefits-2026-04-29.html]
Death on or after age 75: the lump sum is taxable as income at the recipient's marginal rate, deducted at source by the pension provider. [source: gov-uk/tax-on-pension-death-benefits-2026-04-29.html]

The age-75 rule is absolute. A member who dies on the day before their 75th birthday leaves a tax-free pot (within allowance); on or after the 75th birthday, the same pot is fully taxable in the recipient's hands. Annuities purchased before death and inherited drawdown income follow the same age threshold.

A DC death benefit paid at trustee discretion under a nomination form sits outside the deceased's estate and is not counted towards the nil-rate band for inheritance tax. A pension paid directly to the estate (because no nomination is on file and the trustees decide that way, or because the scheme has no discretion) does count, and can pull an otherwise inheritance-tax-free estate over the threshold. The nomination form is the difference between two outcomes.

The nomination form¶

A pension nomination form — also called an expression of wish or death-benefit nomination — is the document the member completes to tell the scheme who they want death benefits paid to. Most schemes ask for a nomination at enrolment and accept updates throughout the working life.

The form is binding in practice but not in law. Trustees retain a legal discretion that gives the death benefit its inheritance-tax-free status. In normal cases trustees pay the nominated beneficiary; they only depart from the nomination where circumstances have changed materially (the named beneficiary has died, the relationship has ended, the form is decades old and now contradicts the will).

Where no nomination form is on file, trustees pay at full discretion. Most follow the intestacy rules (paying a spouse first, then children, then more distant relatives), but they can also pay the estate directly. Paying the estate is rarely the best outcome: it pulls the pension into the inheritance-tax calculation and forces it through probate before reaching beneficiaries.

The first call to any DC pension provider after a death should ask whether a nomination form has been completed and, if so, who is named. The answer determines what happens next.

Annuities and drawdown¶

A DC pension that has been used to buy an annuity has been exchanged for a guaranteed income for life. A standard single-life annuity stops on the holder's death; there is no lump sum and no continuing income. Joint-life annuities pay a continuing income (typically 50% to 100% of the original) to a named survivor for the rest of their life. Guaranteed-period annuities pay the full income for a fixed period from purchase (5 or 10 years are common); if the holder dies during the guarantee period, the income continues to the estate or to a named beneficiary until the period ends.

A DC pension in drawdown has not been used to buy an annuity; the holder has been drawing income directly from the pot, and the residual pot is the death benefit. The age-75 tax treatment applies to inherited drawdown income on the same basis as inherited lump sums.

The pension paperwork (annuity certificate or drawdown statement) shows which arrangement is in place. Where the deceased died part-way through retirement, both may apply — part annuitised, part still in drawdown.

Tracing forgotten pensions¶

A working life of 40 to 50 years across multiple employers leaves most people with several pensions. Small pots from short employment stints are often forgotten by the holder; they are not closed when the person leaves the employer, just transferred between scheme administrators over the years. Many become impossible to trace from the deceased's paperwork alone because the original scheme has changed name multiple times. [source: gov-uk/find-pension-contact-details-2026-04-29.html]

The free Pension Tracing Service at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details (phone 0800 731 0193) searches a database of UK workplace and personal pension schemes by employer or provider name and returns the current administrator's contact details. It does not say whether the deceased had a pension or what it is worth — the executor still has to write to each administrator with the deceased's details — but it solves the "who do I write to" problem. [source: gov-uk/find-pension-contact-details-2026-04-29.html]

Working through the deceased's CV or employment history and running each employer through the Pension Tracing Service is the standard sweep. Two or three forgotten pots are common; small balances under the auto-enrolment threshold are very common.

Notifying every provider¶

The notification sequence is the same for every provider:

Phone the bereavement team. Most providers have a dedicated number; the standard customer service line is slower.
Provide the deceased's full name, date of birth, National Insurance number, and pension reference (if known).
Send proof of death — death certificate or Tell Us Once reference number — and proof of executor or next-of-kin status.
Ask the four questions: what is the death benefit, has a nomination form been completed and who is named, what is the tax treatment, and what documents do you need from me to process the claim.
Request a date-of-death valuation in writing for the IHT400 return where one is required.

For DC schemes, the death-benefit lump sum or transfer typically pays within 4 to 8 weeks of the documents being submitted. For DB schemes, the survivor's pension begins on the next regular payroll date after the scheme has confirmed entitlement.

Tax reporting and the lump sum allowance¶

The recipient of a DC death-benefit lump sum needs to be aware of two tax thresholds:

The deceased's lump sum and death benefit allowance (LSDBA) is the cap on tax-free death-benefit lump sums payable in respect of one person across all their pension pots. The standard allowance is £1,073,100, set under the post-2024 pensions tax framework. Where total lump sums payable to all beneficiaries exceed the LSDBA, the excess is taxable. [source: gov-uk/tax-on-pension-death-benefits-2026-04-29.html]
Inheritance tax is not normally charged on a discretionary DC death benefit but is charged on a benefit paid into the estate. Inheritance tax covers the broader rules.

For DB pensions, no equivalent lump-sum cap applies to the ongoing survivor's pension (which is taxable as income), and pre-retirement death-in-service lump sums sit within the LSDBA where one is paid.

Scotland and Northern Ireland¶

UK pension schemes operate UK-wide on identical terms. The State Pension, Additional State Pension, DB and DC scheme rules, and the Pension Tracing Service all apply equally across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Where a grant of probate is required (for example, where a DC death benefit is paid into the estate rather than directly to a nominated beneficiary), the Scottish Confirmation or the Northern Irish grant is accepted in place of the English grant of probate.

What this guide doesn't cover¶

This guide is about pensions held by the deceased. It does not cover pensions still held by a surviving spouse and their own death-benefit planning — that is a financial-planning topic outside the scope of bereavement administration. It also does not cover pension sharing orders made on divorce, where part of a pension was already legally assigned to a former spouse before the death; those are governed by the original court order and need specialist legal advice.

For complex estates — multiple large DC pots, a pension scheme dispute, a contested nomination, or a death close to age 75 where the tax outcome is on a knife-edge — taking advice from an independent financial adviser or a specialist pensions solicitor is usually worth the cost.

If you're struggling, you don't have to do this alone. Samaritans (116 123, 24/7) | Cruse Bereavement Care (0808 808 1677) | Mind (0300 123 3393)

Next: Inheritance tax

Last verified: 29 April 2026 against gov.uk/tax-on-pension-death-benefits, gov.uk/additional-state-pension, and gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details.