What happens to your UK pension when you die abroad

Britain's death admin assumes you die in Britain. Register a death in England, Scotland or Wales and the Tell Us Once service notifies the DWP and other government departments in a single step. That service is only available if the person was living in Britain; gov.uk says so explicitly, and living abroad permanently rules it out. Registering the death with the UK authorities through the consular service is optional, a record-keeping exercise, and nothing on gov.uk suggests it tells the DWP anything. So when a British pensioner dies in Portugal or Dubai, the state pension carries on being paid until the family says stop. The DWP then treats everything paid after the date of death as recoverable, and will contact the next of kin, the bank, or whoever handles the estate to get it back. The system has no feed from foreign registrars. The survivor is the feed.

The door for everything is the International Pension Centre in Wolverhampton. State pension line +44 (0)191 218 7777, bereavement benefits line +44 (0)191 206 9390, or by post to The Pension Service 11, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton WV98 1LW. Phone early, even before the paperwork is complete. The sooner the DWP knows, the smaller the sum it asks the family to hand back.

One more piece of the machinery worth knowing in advance: overseas pensioners get life certificate forms from the DWP from time to time, which must be completed and returned, and payments can be suspended if the form doesn't come back. If you've lived abroad a while you've probably had one. That form exists because no one tells the DWP when overseas pensioners die.

What stops on the day

The deceased's own state pension stops at death. Payments that land after the date of death are an overpayment the DWP can recover from the estate, and gov.uk warns against distributing the estate before the position is settled. Any arrears owed up to the date of death go the other way: they're payable to the estate, and the DWP can, in some cases, pay them to the personal representatives or next of kin without waiting for probate.

A pension annuity, the kind that pays a fixed income for life from an insurance company, may also stop the same day. Whether it does depends entirely on choices made when it was bought, which is why the policy schedule matters more than any general rule. More on that below.

What a spouse can inherit from the state pension

What a surviving spouse or civil partner can inherit splits on one date: which side of 6 April 2016 the deceased's state pension falls.

If the deceased reached state pension age on or after 6 April 2016, they were on the new state pension, and the inheritable element is narrow: up to half of any "protected payment", the slice of their pension above the full new state pension flat rate. The condition catches people out: the marriage or civil partnership must have begun before 6 April 2016. A couple who married in 2018 inherit nothing from this route however long they were together before that.

If the deceased reached state pension age before 6 April 2016, or died before that date, the old rules apply and they're more generous. A survivor can inherit additional state pension: up to half of any State Second Pension, and between half and all of any SERPS, on a sliding scale set by the deceased's date of birth. A survivor who reached state pension age before April 2016 may also be able to increase their basic state pension using the deceased's National Insurance record if their own is short.

Deferral is its own small inheritance. If the deceased had put off claiming their state pension under the old rules, or was being paid a deferred pension when they died, the survivor can usually inherit the extra, and where the deferral ran for over a year there's normally a choice between a lump sum and higher regular payments. This applies where the deceased reached state pension age before 6 April 2016.

None of this survives remarriage or a new civil partnership before the survivor's own state pension age, and none of it arrives automatically: the DWP assesses it when the death is reported, which is another reason the phone call comes first.

For the survivor staying abroad: the state pension, including anything inherited, is payable anywhere in the world, but annual increases depend on the country. In the EEA, Gibraltar and Switzerland it rises each year. It also rises in some countries with a social security agreement, though an agreement alone isn't enough (Canada and New Zealand have agreements and no increases), so check the gov.uk country list. In most of the rest of the world, the Gulf states and Australia included, it's frozen at the rate first paid there.

The company pension from the 1990s

If the deceased had a defined benefit pension, the kind that pays a promised income based on salary and service (if it arrives monthly and never asked anyone to choose investments, it's probably this), the scheme's own rules decide what a survivor gets. There's no universal fraction. The big public schemes give a feel for the range: the NHS scheme pays a surviving adult between about a third and a half of the member's pension depending on which section they were in, Teachers' Pensions pays around 37.5% under career average rules, and Civil Service alpha pays 37.5%. Private schemes vary in the same way. The only reliable answer comes from the administrator, and the question to ask is: what does the scheme pay a surviving spouse, and are there children's pensions?

Three traps sit in the older rules. Some schemes restrict the survivor's pension where the marriage happened after retirement, counting only part of the member's service. Some older public sector sections stop the survivor's pension on remarriage or cohabitation, while modern sections pay for life. And unmarried partners are covered by many schemes but on conditions: typically two years living together, financial interdependence with documents to prove it, and in some schemes a notification form that had to be sent in while the member was alive. If you're the unmarried partner of someone with a defined benefit pension, finding out where you stand is a today job.

If the old employer went bust and the scheme fell into the Pension Protection Fund, the survivor's version is simpler: an eligible spouse, civil partner or qualifying partner gets half the member's PPF compensation.

Survivor pensions from these schemes are paid to survivors abroad. The scheme keeps paying wherever you live; it needs to know where that is, and how what arrives is taxed belongs with the pension questions a professional answers for your circumstances.

The annuity

An annuity bought years ago follows the shape it was bought in, and the survivor finds that shape in the policy schedule, one sheet of paper that answers three questions. Single life or joint life: single life stops at death; joint life carries on paying a chosen proportion, commonly half or the full amount, to the named survivor. Guarantee period: if one was selected, payments run to the end of the guaranteed term even though the annuitant has died, usually to a nominated beneficiary, otherwise they can fall to the estate. Value protection: a less common option that pays back the purchase price minus income already drawn, as a lump sum.

Dig the schedule out now, while nobody has died. It's the single document that tells a couple whether the second income halves, continues or vanishes, and reading it costs nothing. If it can't be found, the provider should be able to confirm the shape of the policy to the annuitant on request. The same notification rule applies here as with the state pension: the insurer has no feed from a foreign registrar either, so instalments paid after death are recoverable, and the provider should be told promptly.

We can't tell you whether the shape your annuity was bought in was the right one. This is an inventory exercise: know which documents exist and what they say.

Bereavement Support Payment, briefly, because most expats can't get it

Bereavement Support Payment is the working-age benefit paid to a surviving spouse, civil partner, or cohabiting partner with children: up to £3,500 followed by 18 monthly payments of £350 at the higher rate where there are dependent children, £2,500 and 18 payments of £100 otherwise, where the survivor is under state pension age and the deceased had paid enough National Insurance in any one tax year.

Here's the expat catch. A new claim can only be made from the UK or from a country where the UK pays bereavement benefits: the EEA, Switzerland, Gibraltar and a short list of agreement countries including New Zealand, the Philippines, Israel, Turkey, the USA and a few others. The Gulf states aren't on the list. A widow in Spain or Portugal can claim through the International Pension Centre. A widow in Dubai, Doha or Riyadh can't make a new claim at all. There's one wrinkle worth knowing: someone already receiving the benefit who then moves abroad keeps it wherever they go. Claims run on a clock: 21 months is the outer limit and late claims can mean less, so where it does apply it belongs in the first weeks, and the DWP decides entitlement in every case.

The pensions nobody remembers

Most people who worked in Britain for decades have a pension or two they've lost track of, an employer scheme from the 1980s, a personal pension started and abandoned. The Pension Tracing Service is a free government service that finds contact details for lost workplace and personal schemes, online or on +44 (0)191 218 7777 from abroad. It won't say whether there's money or how much, but it turns a name half-remembered from an old payslip into an administrator's address. Do the tracing while both of you are alive. A widow guessing at employers from forty years ago is the hard version of a job that takes an afternoon now.

The sheet beside the will

Your will can't reach most of what this article covers. The state pension, a survivor's pension from a defined benefit scheme, a joint life annuity: these pass, or stop, under their own rules, set years ago, whatever the will says. A few stray ends do reach the estate, arrears, and guarantee period instalments where no beneficiary was nominated, among them, which is one reason the will still needs to exist and be right. But the kindest document you can leave a spouse abroad alongside the will is one page, written while you're both well, that says who to phone.

What goes on the page:

1. The International Pension Centre's details, and a note that Tell Us Once doesn't cover people living abroad permanently.
2. Each pension in payment or deferred, with scheme name, administrator's phone number and reference number.
3. For the annuity: provider, policy number, and the answer already looked up: single or joint life, any guarantee period, any value protection.
4. For any defined benefit scheme: what the administrator said the survivor's pension will be, and whether an unmarried partner needs to be registered with the scheme now.
5. The National Insurance numbers, both of you.
6. Where the will is, and who the executors are.

The will and the sheet do different jobs from the same drawer. The will directs what the estate holds; the sheet hands the survivor the phone numbers for everything the estate never touches. An Expat Legacy will is drafted under the law of England and Wales around expat circumstances and reviewed by a person before your documents are released, £149 for a single will, £249 for mirror wills for a couple. Write the sheet the same week.

Sources

• What to do after someone dies: Tell Us Once (GOV.UK)
• International Pension Centre contact details (GOV.UK)
• New State Pension: inheriting or increasing State Pension from a spouse or civil partner (GOV.UK)
• State Pension annual increases if you live abroad (GOV.UK)
• Pension Protection Fund, bereavement FAQs (PPF)
• Bereavement Support Payment: what you'll get (GOV.UK)
• Claiming benefits abroad: bereavement benefits (GOV.UK)
• Find pension contact details: Pension Tracing Service (GOV.UK)

Expat Legacy provides England and Wales wills and general information about cross-border estate planning. This is general information only. Entitlement to state pension inheritance and bereavement benefits is assessed by the DWP on individual circumstances; scheme benefits depend on each scheme's rules; and nothing here is advice to buy or change any pension or annuity. For decisions about pensions, take regulated financial advice, or start with MoneyHelper's free guidance. Position stated as at August 2026.