Part II Contributory Benefits
Retirement pensions (Categories A and B)
F148BB Category B retirement pension: entitlement by reference to benefits under section 39A or 39B.
(1)
Subsection (2) below applies where a person (“the pensioner”) who has attained pensionable age—
(a)
was, immediately before attaining that age, entitled to a widowed parent’s allowance in consequence of the death of his or her spouse F2or civil partner; and
(b)
has not F3following that death married or formed a civil partnership.
(2)
The pensioner shall be entitled to a Category B retirement pension by virtue of the contributions of the spouse F2or civil partner, which shall be payable at the same weekly rate as the widowed parent’s allowance.
(3)
Subsections (4) to (10) below apply where a person (“the pensioner”) who has attained pensionable age—
(a)
was in consequence of the death of his or her spouse F2or civil partner either—
(i)
entitled to a bereavement allowance at any time prior to attaining that age, or
(ii)
entitled to a widowed parent’s allowance at any time when over the age of 45 (but not immediately before attaining pensionable age); and
(b)
has not F4following that death married or formed a civil partnership.
(4)
The pensioner shall be entitled to a Category B retirement pension by virtue of the contributions of the spouse F2or civil partner.
(5)
A Category B retirement pension payable by virtue of subsection (4) above shall be payable at a weekly rate corresponding to the weekly rate of the additional pension determined in accordance with the provisions of sections 44 to F545AA F6and 45B above F7and F8Schedules 4A and 4B to this Act as they apply in relation to a Category A retirement pension, but F9subject to section F1046 above and to the following provisions of this section and the modification in section 48C(4) below.
(6)
Where the spouse F2or civil partner died under pensionable age, references in the provisions of sections 44 to F1145AA F12and 45B above F7and Schedule 4A to this Act, as applied by subsection (5) above, to the tax year in which the pensioner attained pensionable age shall be taken as references to the tax year in which the spouse F2or civil partner died.
(7)
(8)
Where the pensioner was under the age of 55 at the relevant time, the weekly rate of the pension shall be reduced by 7 per cent. of what it would be apart from this subsection multiplied—
(a)
by the number of years by which the pensioner’s age at that time was less than 55 (any fraction of a year being counted as a year), or
(b)
by ten, if that number exceeds ten.
(9)
In subsection (8) above “the relevant time” means—
(a)
where the pensioner became entitled to a widowed parent’s allowance in consequence of the death of the spouse F2or civil partner, the time when the pensioner’s entitlement to that allowance ended; and
(b)
otherwise, the time of the spouse’s F14or civil partner's death.
(10)
The amount determined in accordance with subsections (5) to (9) above as the weekly rate of the pension payable to the pensioner by virtue of subsection (4) above shall be increased by such percentage as equals the overall percentage by which, had the pension been in payment as from the date of the spouse’s F14or civil partner's death until the date when the pensioner attained pensionable age, that weekly rate would have been increased during that period by virtue of any orders under section 132 of the Administration Act (annual up-rating of benefits).