Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013

Category B retirement pension for widows and widowers

12 (1) Section 48B of the 1992 Act (Category B retirement pension for widows and widowers) does not confer a right to a Category B retirement pension on a woman who attained pensionable age before 6th April 2010 by reason of her marriage to another woman.

(2) But that does not prevent section 48B from conferring a right to such a pension on a woman by reason of her marriage to another woman (“the spouse”) if—

(a) the spouse was, at the time of her death, a woman by virtue of a full gender recognition certificate having been issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and

(b) the marriage subsisted before the time when that certificate was issued.

(3) In section 48B of the 1992 Act—

(a) in subsection (1ZA), in paragraph (a)(ii) after “date” (in the second place where it appears) insert “and the case does not fall within paragraph (c)”;

(b) in subsection (1ZA), after paragraph (b) insert—

“(c) in a case where—

(i) the spouse died on or after 6th April 2010,

(ii) the spouse was born on or after 6th April 1945 but before 6th April 1950,

(iii) the spouse was, at the time of her death, a woman and the pensioner in question is a woman, and

(iv) subsection (1ZB) applies,

the condition specified in Schedule 3, Part 1, paragraph 5A.”;

(c) after subsection (1ZA) insert—

“(1ZB) This subsection applies where—

(a) the spouse was, at the time of her death, a woman by virtue of a full gender recognition certificate having been issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and

(b) the marriage subsisted before the time when that certificate was issued.”

(4) In paragraph 5A of Schedule 3 to the 1992 Act, at the end of sub-paragraph (1)(c) insert “or in a case of the kind mentioned in subsection (1ZA)(c) of that section”.

(5) In this paragraph “the 1992 Act” means the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.