Benefits for Dependants

What benefits are paid to my Dependants if I die?

These benefits depend on whether you’re in active service, retirement, or have left the Plan at the date of your death and are based on your Reckonable Service. Generally, one or more of the following benefits may become payable on your death:

1. A Lump Sum (payable at the discretion of the Trustee).
2. A Spouse’s pension (noting the definition ‘Spouse’ covers both spouse and Civil Partnership).
3. A Children’s pension

Can I name someone to receive any Lump Sum when I die?

You can name the person or people you’d like to receive any Lump Sum payment due on your death by completing and returning an Expression of Wish Form. You should review your Expression of Wish Form regularly and keep this up to date. The Expression of Wish Form can be accessed and updated on EQ’s Member Self Service and Aegon’s TargetPlan Portal which can be accessed at www.cnpp.org.uk/login, or a printable form can be downloaded and returned via post. 

Payment of the Lump Sum to your nominee(s) will be subject to the discretion of the Trustee and your Expression of Wish Form will be considered but the Trustee does not have to follow your wishes. Under current tax rules, the Lump Sum can usually be paid tax free.

• Expression of Wish Form to download and complete
• Login to the TargetPlan Portal to update your Expression of Wish

Divorce or dissolution of a Civil Partnership

If you get divorced or dissolve your Civil Partnership your benefits under the Plan may become subject to a court order. This would require the Trustee to allocate a specified part of your retirement benefits and death benefits under the Plan to your ex-Spouse or your ex-Civil Partner.

If a court order applies to your Plan benefits you will be given details of the reduction to apply to your benefits. On divorce or dissolution where a court order applies you should inform the Trustee.

Lump Sum

What happens if I die in service?

We will pay a Lump Sum of 2.5x your Pensionable Final Earnings.

What happens if I die after I leave the Plan?

If you leave the Plan and then die before drawing your pension, the Lump Sum death benefit is equal to 3x the level of your CARE pension as though it would be received immediately before you died and had exchanged it for a Lump Sum (see Pensions and Lump Sum benefits) plus any retirement Lump Sum you would have received for your Final Salary benefits.

What happens if I die in retirement?

If you die before the fifth anniversary of your retirement, you receive a minimum benefit guarantee of a Lump Sum of five times the amount of your annual pension at death, less the pension and Lump Sum payments you have already received at the date of your death.

Spouse’s pension

Does my Spouse get a pension?

A pension benefit is payable to your Spouse when you die for the rest of their life if you have at least two years Qualifying Service. It will be part calculated on a CARE basis and part on Final Salary basis.

The part calculated on a CARE basis will be in most cases 37.5% of the CARE pension you were receiving at the date of your death or, if you had not yet started to receive your pension, would have received if you retired immediately before your death. In some cases reductions due to early retirement and/or dependant option surrender do not apply when calculating the Spouse pension.

If you die when still in employment and building up CARE benefits, your CARE pension used for this calculation will be as if you had retired on Medical Grounds because you are too ill to work (see Retiring).

In most cases, the part calculated on a Final Salary basis will be 1/160 of your Pensionable Final Earnings per year of Final Salary Pensionable Service before 31 March 1997 and 1/140 of your Pensionable Final Earnings per year of Final Salary Pensionable Service on and after 1 April 1997 to 31 March 2024 at the date of your death, increased by RPI from the date you stopped building up benefits in the Plan to your death.

If you die whilst in retirement, the Spouse/Adult Dependant’s pension for the first 137 days will be increased to 2/3rds of the Final Salary pension you were receiving before your death if there are no Children in the case of your Spouse/Adult Dependant. After the first 137 days short term pension ends (or immediately after your death if no short term pension is payable) your Spouse or Adult Dependant will begin to receive a standard long term Spouse pension.

If you receive an ill-health service enhancement and you are married or have nominated an Adult Dependant to receive benefits on your death at the time you left Pensionable Service, your automatic Lump Sum payable on Final Salary benefits (if applicable) will have a deduction applied equal to the period of Pensionable Service that has been enhanced (see Retiring) x 0.01875 and multiplied by Pensionable Final Earnings.  On the basis that this deduction is applied, your Spouse/Adult Dependant’s pension will be calculated based on your pension including the Ill-health service enhancement.

Your Spouse’s pension will not be less than the Spouse’s GMP in relation to any part of the Member’s Pensionable Service which was contracted-out (or treated as contracted-out) before 6 April 1997.

Please note that there are certain rules for Former BNFL Members.

The following worked example shows how the ill-health enhancement works on death in practice:

Can a pension be paid to an Adult Dependant?

If you leave an Adult Dependant but no Spouse, the Trustee may pay the pension to your Adult Dependant at its discretion.

Can I increase the pension that my Spouse would receive?

You can choose to exchange part of your pension for additional benefits for your spouse at retirement. The amount your spouse would receive is determined by the Trustee on advice of the Plan’s actuary and you cannot exchange more than a third of your pension (and cannot mean that the pension surrendered plus any pension contingently payable on your death is more than your annual pension after the surrender). If you’re interested in this, please contact the Plan Administrator on 0333 207 6523 or email CombinedNuclearPensionPlan@equiniti.com

Children’s pension

Will my children get a pension?

A pension will be paid to a maximum of two children up to the age of 18 (or up to the age of 23 if they are in full-time education or vocational training).

A child cannot receive pensions in relation to more than two Members of the Plan. Once a child ceases to qualify as a child for the purposes (for example because they are aged over 18 or 23 as applicable), the Trustee may reallocate the pension payable to them to any other children, at its discretion.

This pension is usually paid immediately after your death.

How much pension will my children receive?

Children’s pensions will be part calculated on a CARE basis and part on a Final Salary basis and the total amount payable will depend on the number of your children.

The children’s pension is based on proportion of your pension entitlement (ignoring any amount arising from the purchase of Added Years or from receipt of a transfer) calculated differently if you die:

1. In active service: The child’s pension is calculated as though your pension had been being put into payment immediately before your death.
2. Having left the Plan: The child’s pension is based on your Final Salary deferred pension payable at date of death, plus the CARE deferred pension at the time of death if the pension had been brought into payment immediately before death without reduction in early payment (see the note below for special rules which apply if you have less than 10 years’ Pensionable Service). Any reduction applied to your pension for early retirement after having left the Plan will be ignored when calculating your child’s pension.
3. Whilst receiving a pension: The child’s pension is based on the actual pension you were receiving at date of death in most cases (although there may be adjustments for members who received enhancements when retiring on Medical Grounds or when members exercised an option to increase spouse or dependant’s pension on death).

Note that if you die having left the Plan but are not yet in receipt of your pension and your Pensionable Service is less than 10 years, increased Pensionable Service (and therefore an increased pension) will apply when calculating your children’s pension by whichever of the following provides the lower Pensionable Service:

1. So that your Pensionable Service is 10 years; or
2. The Pensionable Service you would have completed if you had remained in service until five years after Pension Age.

For the part of the children’s pension calculated based on CARE benefits, the proportion of your CARE pension (as summarised above) that will be payable is 30% for each child in the care of a Spouse/Adult Dependant who is receiving a Spouse’s pension (or Adult Dependant’s pension, as applicable) and 50% for any others. If you have more than one child, the children’s pensions payable are subject to an overall maximum proportion of 60% of your benefits, as summarised above, if a Spouse’s (or Adult Dependant’s) pension is in payment to a Spouse or Adult Dependant and 100% if not.

In addition, if you have built up Final Salary benefits, the proportion of your Final Salary pension (as summarised above) that will be payable is 25% for each child in the care of your Spouse (or of an Adult Dependant) who is receiving a Spouse’s pension (or Adult Dependant’s pension, as applicable) and 33% for any other. If you have more than one child, the children’s pensions payable are subject to the following overall maximum proportions of your benefits, as summarised above:

• 50% if all children are in the care of your Spouse or if a Spouse’s pension is being paid.
• 58.34% if one child is in the care of someone other than your Spouse and no Spouse’s pension is being paid.
• 66.67% if two or more of the children are in the care of someone other than your Spouse and no Spouse’s pension is being paid.

Where the limits above apply, the pension will be split between each child by the Trustee and the Trustee may reallocate the maximum pension when any child starts or stops being eligible (e.g. because they are older than age 18 and are not or are no longer in full time education or vocational training).

Note that if you die in retirement without a Spouse or Adult Dependant and leave one or more children in the care of someone that person will receive a short-term pension, paid for 183 days for one child or 368 for two or more children, equal to 50% of your CARE pension (as summarised above) and 2/3rds of Final Salary pension (as summarised above) immediately before your death. At the end of the period of payment of the short-term pension, the usual children’s pension explained above will be paid.

What if I have a permanently incapacitated child?

If when you die you leave a child who is physically or mentally incapacitated to the extent of being incapable earning an income from any trade, employment or profession the payment of the pension to that child may continue beyond age 23.

In addition Former BNFL Members may have an option to provide an additional pension for a permanently incapacitated child as explained in Appendix 1. If this applies to you and your children and you would like more information, please contact the Plan Administrator on 0333 207 6523 or email CombinedNuclearPensionPlan@equiniti.com

What if I die with only a small amount of built up benefits?

If you die and have only built up a small amount of benefits a pension payable on your death may be paid as a Trivial Commutation Lump Sum Death Benefit on death. The government sets strict rules about who can trivially commute their pension and it is generally only available for small pension pots. The amount of Trivial Commutation Lump Sum Death Benefit on death your dependants would receive is determined by the Trustee on advice of the Plan’s actuary.