This piece first appeared in Saga Magazine in October 2002
The text here may not be identical to the published text

Outrageous treatment of widows


Suffering caused by a scheme intended to give equal rights to men and women

Do not tell Sandra Manning that she hasn’t worked. She has brought up three children, looked after her grandchildren so her daughter-in-law could work, and now she cares for her 88-year-old mother, visiting her every day, cooking her evening meal and making sure she takes her medicine. But now at the age of 57 Sandra has to get her first paid full-time job since her marriage nearly 30 years ago.

It is a very different life from the one she expected when her husband John retired in February last year. "We had planned to do so much. He had worked hard to provide for a good retirement. But soon after he stopped work he was diagnosed with cancer and last October he died. Although he had a good works pension, there was nothing for me – it died with him. All I get is £75.50 a week bereavement allowance from the state. And when that terminates in October I will have nothing unless I go out to work."

Sandra is a victim of changes to widow’s benefits made in April 2001. Before then, widows aged at least 55 when they were bereaved got a full widow’s pension until they reached 60 and could claim retirement pension. Widows as young as 45 got a widow’s pension at a reduced rate. But the widow’s pension was abolished for anyone bereaved after April 8 last year. Now, new widows under 60 who do not have dependent children get a bereavement allowance which lasts just twelve months. After that they are on their own.

Under the old rules, Sandra would have got a widow’s pension from the time her husband died in October last year until she reached 60 in March 2004, a total of three and half year’s pension. In addition, the widow’s pension would have been topped up with an earnings-related additional pension, SERPS, earned by her husband – an extra £60 a week in her case. But that extra pension is not added on to the bereavement allowance – she has to wait until she is 60 to get it. So instead of getting around £135 a week for nearly three and a half years, she gets £75.50 a week for just one year. Altogether Sandra is around £20,000 worse off under the new system – her share of the £500 million the changes will save the Government each year.

Sandra had not worked out her total loss. "Oh my goodness. That’s terrible. It’s a lot of money. All that will have to come out of my savings and my earnings."

The changes were part of a package which gave bereaved men under pension age equal rights to those of women. That does not impress Sandra.

"Men are more likely to have a job, be in full-time employment. It is the ladies who have been at home looking after the family, bringing up the children. It is very difficult to get back into work at my age. I have enrolled in a computer course for the simple reason for any sort of office work you need to be computer literate, which I am not. I do fear my age will be against me. I think this change is very cruel, it is a wicked thing to do to women of my age."

Stealth

When Sandra does get a job it will be much harder to care for her mother who may have to go into sheltered accommodation. But Sandra is determined to get work.

"There is council tax to pay and the upkeep of this home. I don’t want to leave it. My husband built most of it and it would be disrespectful to his memory. I also have my friends nearby and of course my mother. I knew nothing about these change, nor did anyone I have spoken to. After he died I was shocked that widow’s pension had been abolished and the new allowance only lasted a year. It is so very cruel. All because he died after April 2001. They should graduate it in some way, not just cut it off like that."

Thousands of women widowed under 60 are in Sandra’s position. Many have written to Saga Magazine to complain about the cuts and the lack of publicity by the Government for these massive changes – stealth cuts by the DWP to match the stealth taxes of the Treasury. Brenda, aged 57 and from Kent, lost her husband Colin just weeks after the rules changed. "I feel so angry. My husband died of a massive heart attack at 62 with no warning. He had only had 2 days illness in 47 years of full-time work. I don’t expect handouts but after a lifetime of working and paying I feel let down. Women’s benefits have been radically reduced but it was slipped through with no-one knowing about it. I am totally distraught, let down by what is supposed to be a caring government".

More cuts

There is worse to come. Men and women within ten years of pension age have recently been sent letters by the Department for Work and Pensions warning them that if they are widowed after 5 October this year, they may get less money when they reach pension age. A widow at 60 gets a state retirement pension based on her late husband’s National Insurance contribution record. So usually she will get a full single person’s pension – currently £75.50 a week. In addition she can inherit her husband’s entitlement to the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme. At the moment she gets that in full. But for any death after 5 October 2002 new rules apply and the amount of SERPS that is inherited depends on the date of birth of her late husband. If he was born before 6 October 1937 she will get it in full at 60. If he was born on 6 October 1945 or later then she will get only half his SERPS at 60. For men born between those dates there is a sliding scale – see table 2. With the maximum SERPS currently £134.54 a week, this change could cost some widowed women £3500 a year for the rest of their lives.

The tragedy is none of these savings were necessary. Bereavement benefits and SERPS are paid out of the National Insurance fund which at the end of 2002 had a surplus of more than £24 billion – around £15 billion more than the ever-prudent Government Actuary says it needs. Next year the surplus will be even more.

Men

Although these changes were made as a consequence of giving men equal benefits, they have failed to do so. True, men who are bereaved from 9 April 2001 now have the same rights to benefits as women. And men with a dependent child can claim widowed parent’s allowance even if they were widowed before 9 April 2001. But there is one big barrier in the way of men getting these bereavement benefits. Entitlement depends on the National Insurance record of the person who has died. Married women – particularly of this generation – are much less likely to have a full National Insurance record than married men. So many bereaved men will find they are not entitled to a bereavement allowance because their late wife had not paid sufficient National Insurance contributions. If Sandra had died and her husband lived, for example, he would have got nothing because she had not paid sufficient National Insurance contributions.


Lump-sum

A tax-free bereavement payment of £2000 is paid to some widows and widowers on the death of their spouse. You can get the payment if

either

· you are under pension age when your spouse died,

or

· your spouse was not getting a retirement pension when they died.

So the people who do not get it are those who are over pension age when their spouse dies and their spouse was getting a retirement pension. The deceased person must also have paid full National Insurance contributions for at least six months during their life. Almost everyone fulfils that condition. The payment must be claimed within three months of the person’s death.


More information

The Pension Service

Department for Work and Pensions


WOMEN WITHOUT DEPENDENT CHILDREN
BENEFITS TO AGE 60
Widowed before April 9, 2001 Widowed on or after April 9, 2001
Widowed at age 55-59
Full widow's pension, £75.50 a week, to age 60, plus late spouse's SERPS entitlement up to maximum of £134 a week
Widowed at age 55.59
Bereavement allowance of £75.50 a week for 12 months only. No SERPS.
Widowed at age 45-54
Partial widow's pension, £22.65 to £67.43 a week depending on age at bereavement, until 60, plus a proportion of late spouse's SERPS.
Widowed at age 45-54
Reduced bereavement allowance, £22.65 to £67.43 a week depending on age at bereavement, paid for 12 months only. No SERPS.
Widowed under 45
nothing

INHERITED SERPS
Widowed before October 6, 2002 Widowed on or after October 6, 2002
WOMEN
Full SERPS from late husband at 60
WOMEN
Proportion of SERPS at 60 from late husband depending on his date of birth

Born 
before 6 Oct 1937                         100%
6 Oct 1937 to 5 Oct 1939               90%
6 Oct 1939 to 5 Oct 1941               80%
6 Oct 1941 to 5 Oct 1943               70%
6 Oct 1943 to 5 Oct 1945               60%
6 Oct 1945 or later                          50%

MEN
Full SERPS from late wife at 65
MEN
Proportion of SERPS at 65 from late wife depending on her date of birth

Born 
before 6 Oct 1942                         100%
6 Oct 1942 to 5 Oct 1944               90%
6 Oct 1944 to 5 Oct 1946               80%
6 Oct 1946 to 5 Oct 1948               70%
6 Oct 1948 to 5 July 1950               60%
6 July 1950 or later                          50%

 


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