The Social Security (Widow's Benefit and Retirement Pensions) Regulations 1979

Substitution of former spouse's contribution record to give entitlement to a Category A retirement pension

8.—(1) This regulation applies to—

(a) any person whose last marriage terminated before he attained pensionable age and who did not remarry before that date;

(b) any man widowed on or after attaining pensionable age, his former spouse being under pensionable age when she died; and

(c) any person whose last marriage terminated on or after the date on which he attained pensionable age otherwise than by the death of his spouse,

and any such person shall be referred to in this regulation as “the beneficiary”.

(2) Where the beneficiary does not, in respect of the year in which his marriage terminated or any previous year, with his own contribution satisfy the contribution conditions for a Category A retirement pension specified in paragraph 5 of Schedule 3 to the Act, then, for the purpose of enabling him to satisfy those conditions, the contributions of his former spouse may, if it is advantageous to him, be treated to the extent specified in paragraphs (3) to (6) as though they were his own.

(3) The beneficiary shall be treated as satisfying the first contribution condition if his former spouse had satisfied that condition as respects any year of his working life up to (inclusive) the year in which the marriage terminated.

(4) The beneficiary shall be treated as satisfying the second contribution condition as respects the number of years arrived at under paragraph 2 or 3 of Schedule 1 to these regulations, whichever is the more beneficial to him.

(5) Where a person is entitled for any period to any basic component in his Category A retirement pension by virtue of this regulation and regulation 6, he shall not be entitled for that period to a section 9(2) increase.

(6) Where any of a person's home responsibilities years falls in a period in respect of which his spouse's contributions are treated as his own under this regulation, no such year shall be taken into account in the determination of his pension entitlement either for the purposes of paragraph 5(6) of Schedule 3 to the Act or for the purposes of regulation 6.