Have your say on government e-petitions

Allow spouses to receive 3 years worth of their deceased partner’s state pension

Submitted by Matthew Faber on Saturday 20th December 2025

Published on Wednesday 4th February 2026

Current status: Open

Open until: Tuesday 4th August 2026

Current Signatures: 57
(count is updated approximately hourly)

Relevant Departments

Tagged with

3 Years ~ Change ~ Contributions ~ FIVE YEARS ~ insurance ~ National Insurance ~ part ~ Partner ~ Payment ~ Pensions ~ Reasonable ~ spouse ~ state pension ~ work ~ Years

Petition Action

Allow spouses to receive 3 years worth of their deceased partner’s state pension

Petition Details

If a spouse dies after retirement, surviving partners may be able to inherit up a part of their spouse’s pensions, sometimes up to 50%. However, most people cannot inherit their spouse’s state pensions based on their contribution record if their spouse dies before retirement age.

Additional Information

Some work-based pensions allow for a named beneficiary to receive three years’ salary as a 'death in service' settlement, which we believe is reasonable. If a spouse dies before their SPA, even when both have paid thirty-five years’ worth of national insurance contributions, their partner cannot receive any part. We are calling for the Government to change this to allow a surviving spouse to receive a single payment equivalent to three years’ worth of state pension payments.


If you want to sign this petition (as opposed to merely discuss it), you need to do that on the government's e-Petitions website.

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at petition.parliament.uk

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216.73.217.179 Tue, 23 Jun 2026 06:59:28 +0100