My mother-in-law has been claiming a widow’s pension for many years. After her first ex-husband died, she married her second husband. It was recently discovered that she had been claiming her widow’s pension from her first ex-husband’s employer while married to her second husband. My understanding is that married or divorced women are not entitled to a widow’s pension. However, I’m not entirely sure what is right and what is wrong.
My question is, should the woman’s family have to repay the amount received from the semi-state agency out of any inheritance she may receive upon her death?
Mr. BM
Getting into family matters is understandably something people don’t like. And whether your mother-in-law isn’t cutting corners on her pension claim is something that is likely to cause headaches for the person left as executor of her estate.
It doesn’t affect the heirs much because it doesn’t matter to the heirs until after probate when the wrongdoing should have been sorted out. They would only benefit from what was left of her estate after paying off all their debts.
I think the first thing to sort out is how much the widow’s (or survivor’s) pension that the mother-in-law is actually claiming. You mention her claim for her first husband’s semi-state pension plan, but it’s unclear if she’s also applying for a state widow’s pension. Rules may be different for each.
As for her first husband, her eligibility for a survivor’s pension would depend entirely on the rules of the particular pension plan in which her husband was a member.
More difficult among the mother-in-law’s eligibility criteria is the provision that the pension will be paid unless she cohabitates or remarries.
After talking to people in the industry, I’ve heard that there are systems that stop paying widows when they remarry, even if they were originally entitled to full survivor’s pensions (also known as dependent pensions). Apparently, there was a view on the revenue side that one had to be financially dependent on the deceased in order to benefit from payments.
From what I have heard, this was certainly the case at one time in the public sector, and most territories would have had similar practices.
However, opinion polls among pension funds show that it is currently about 50/50 whether pensions will continue to be paid even if they remarry. Therefore, your mother-in-law’s right to receive this payment from her first ex-husband’s ex-employer depends entirely on the language of the institutional rules of the company where he worked.
This is the real world, but another thing to note is that your husband’s ex-employer may have no reason to know about her change in circumstances, so even if he is entitled to a refund, he will not. It’s possible that you never know what to cause.
Another thing I can say is that pensions are commonly taken up in divorce mediation. After all, an annuity is usually the single largest investment for a family, after the family’s housing. Courts dealing with financial arrangements in divorce will want to know what arrangements are being made with respect to pensions. The final settlement usually depends on whether both parties have independent occupational pensions.
If your mother-in-law doesn’t have a private pension, or her pension fund was much smaller than your ex-husband’s pension fund, the final financial settlement may take that into account.
Eligibility for the state widow’s pension is more clear-cut.
Norman Crowley on the business of decarbonization
Cork entrepreneur Norman Crowley has signed a contract with a world-leading mining company to convert nearly 8,500 diesel mining trucks to electric vehicles over the next three years, much of the work will be done on-site within the Republic. told Ciarán Hancock on today’s show. podcast. Norman’s company, Cool Planet Group, will do some work at its brand new factory in Powerscourt, County Wicklow. He returns to his podcast, Cool His Planet, how businesses that make up his group, such as software development, conversion to electric vehicles, and provision of educational services, survived the pandemic and now the race to decarbonize the economy accelerates. I will talk about how we are poised for rapid growth while
Either the widow or the deceased spouse did not pay at least 260 weekly PRSI contributions before the date of death or the 66th birthday of the person whose PRSI record is being used, whichever is earlier If so, you are not eligible in the first place. . If the husband dies before her December 27, 2013, the entry level amount will be a more modest payment of 156 PRSI.
Not only that, you must have an average of at least 39 weeks stamped over the three or five years before the cut-off point is used, or you must make an average of 24 PRSI payments per year throughout your working life. If you rely on the number 24, your widow’s pension will only be reduced. The average must be over her 48 years to receive the full pension.
To be fair, there is very little difference. If the widow is under the age of 66, the reduced pension is €219.50 per week. If the annual average exceeds her 36 PRSI stamps, it rises to €222.10, and if it exceeds the average of 48, it rises to €225.50. The maximum difference per week is only €6.
When the widow turns 66, the amounts jump to €265.30 (matching the full state pension), €260.10 and €254 respectively.
But even more difficult among the mother-in-law’s eligibility criteria is the provision that the pension will be paid as long as she does not cohabitate or remarry. She lost her pension entitlement after she moved in with her second husband. And as you say this happened before her first husband died, she would not have been eligible for a pension at any point.
The mere fact that she is divorced does not disqualify her from the state widow’s pension. Despite her divorce, she remains eligible for her widow’s national pension if she or her first husband met the PRSI criteria at the time and was living with or married to someone else. will continue to do so.
If she applied for and received a state widow’s pension, it would affect her. It is not uncommon for the Ministry of Social Protection to carry out tests to see if she was duly receiving any benefits when she died. And it is up to the enforcer to cooperate with the ministry in that regard.
Under the circumstances you outlined, she would not be eligible for the state widow’s pension at any point, and any money she received under that item would be repaid.
If she erroneously billed her ex-husband’s ex-employer, that too would have to be repaid, but unlike the Social Protection Ministry, it is unlikely to launch an investigation unless informed of it.
But that money cannot be repaid for the inheritance the family received before we fled with ourselves. That money must be returned to the state before her will can secure probate. Therefore, it will be repaid before anyone reaches the stage of inheritance. Clearing out all these outstanding financial liabilities and gathering details of assets is an important role of an executor in managing a person’s estate after death and preparing for probate.
Sure, it might take away from what people thought they were going to get, but it wasn’t a legitimate part of your mother-in-law’s property or fortune anyway, so paying it back simply puts the watch back where it was supposed to. just reset it to where it should be.
