@Mike75
So true. I’ve already done a Will and I have changed certain paperwork to make beneficiaries so when I go, all will be in place. I’m sure more things will come up in the future. Not having done this before, I’m sure I’ll have missed something.
Thanks so much for your help!
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@Ali29 i had to provide my wedding certificate and birth certificate. It was my husbands NHS pension. I rang the pensions dept and explained my husband had died. They said the executor of my husbands will would have to contact them which was my step daughter. From her contacting them it took about six weeks. I had to live on savings (fortunately I had a little) otherwise I don’t know how I would have managed to pay bills as all the bills were due within the six weeks. It was a very stressful time and I find nobody makes it easy. We are already vulnerable devastated hardly coping and then have to beg for our pensions. Fortunately I had a good relationship with my step daughter. Hope you get sorted soon x
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One of the ones I dealt with were very long winded. The main one was useless (Teachers’) and, like you, asked me for information they should have asked for in the beginning. I sent everything in then they sent an email to say they now had it all and it was being processed then, 3 weeks later, asked for yet more info. It’s extra stress you can do without at such a dreadful time. The East Riding Pensions were very quick and very efficient.
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@Ali29 . Just to let you know that my email to the CEO of pension company has had the desired effect and have had a reply, all l need to do now is prove who l am, that l was married to hubby and every thing else will fall into place. Sometimes going to the top directly has its benefits.
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That’s brilliant! I think, despite being named person, we weren’t married and it does delay things. Hopefully I will hear sooner rather than later.
@Ali29 . Dont let them drag their heels. Badger them if you have to.
@Ali29 we only bought our house last year so I contacted solicitor as she knew my husband had cancer (diagnosed just after we had exchanged contracts) anyway she took care of taking my husbands name off free of charge but she did say you didn’t need a solicitor but easier if you do
Aww thank you, that’s good to know.
Hi @Ali29
Just wondering if you have had any joy with your partners pension company?
I’ve read a few peoples stories on here about unmarried couples being denied their partners pension pot and now I’m a bit concerned about it.
A few others have said the pension company didn’t pay out the pension pot and just share it back out to the other members. To me that’s absolutely disgusting! I really can’t believe any pension company would deny a greiving person their partners or other family members pension just because they weren’t married to just give it to other members. That can’t be right surely?
I honestly thought your pension contributions would just go to the next of kin or beneficiary after death but apparently the trustees get the final say. Shocking.
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Well how I understand it is, if you have lived as a married couple for two years and were in a position that you could have married, ie you were divorced if married before and shared the financials jointly, then you were entitled to their pension, just being named on the pension does not guarantee it, which shocked me. It was a faff but it is now sorted, took about 2½ months.
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Ah good. I’m glad you got it sorted. I’m actually shocked that being named on the pension doesn’t guarantee it. It definitely should. Why even ask who he wanted the beneficiary to be if they can’t guarantee they will honour that? I mean what difference does it make to the pension company who we decide should get our pension? What gives them the right to override our decisions? Seems crazy to me tbh.
I will take it as far as I possibly can if I run into any problems with the pension company though. At the end of the day he wouldn’t want that money to go back into the pot. He’d be fuming about it tbh 
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Hopefully all will be ok and it will get sorted quickly for you x
@Ali29 21/2months? is that all! im 6 months in, married to my man for 51 years and lm still waiting for my widows pension.
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Was that a workplace pension?
Gosh that’s a long time. That’s absolutely ridiculous. What on earth can be taking them so long? I honestly thought it would be a pretty simple process, let them know, send the death certificate off, provide ID then recieve the money. Clearly I was wrong 
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@LostLil . Yes. They were notified within 1 week of his death and lm still waiting for them to authorise payment. It seems that as l dont understand technology, they have lost the common sense of using the post and so have been dragging their feet to get the relevant forms to me.
Two exact same letters were sent to the address MINUS the house number, on receipt of the first returned letter quoting error, they REPEATED it. l mean what sort of numbnuts are these people employing?? Sorry!
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Oh I notified them on week seven so that’s going to cause a delay. I just wanted to get through the funeral before I started doing much else. To be honest I really should have done it a lot sooner I just buried my head in the sand a bit tbh.
My OH was a complete technophobe too When the pension investment guy came to the house he didn’t want to give them his email address because he preferred all correspondence by post. I always did online banking so went paperless with my statements and he could never understand that
Same with car insurance, mine was done online and his was by post / phone.
Oh I hope I hear something soon. It’s not that I really want the money right now I just want to know that they are going to pay it out especially after reading other peoples situations 
I might give them a ring next week just to check they’ve recieved the death certificate. I shouldn’t have put it off for so long and would definitely advise anybody in the future to do it straight away. I know it’s hard informing people but I didn’t find it any easier waiting seven weeks. It was still extremely hard and emotional. I might as well have done it at week one tbh
@LostLil . Its good that you able to do it online, but do you know what l found is that you take the benefit office for instance, they actually prefer to see hard copies (letters) as proof, they actually employ a person to visit to take pictures of said letters to upload, Especially if it involves bank statements showing proof of income.
Is that a private pension? It’s abhorrent that we are dealing with grief and then have all this crap to deal with. It should be made simpler. But I guess companies would rather keep the money in their accounts for longer.
I had to send them so much paperwork it was unreal but I won’t if it’s different for different pension companies.
What kind of paperwork did they ask for? If I know what to expect then perhaps I can start getting it ready.