Does My Wife Get My Army Pension When I Die?

Does your wife get your army pension when you die? In almost every case, yes — a surviving spouse or civil partner normally receives a pension for life from an armed forces pension. What is far less obvious is how much, because the armed forces do not run one pension scheme. They run three, called AFPS 75, AFPS 05 and AFPS 15, and each one leaves a spouse a different amount.

Which of the three applies to you is decided almost entirely by the dates you served. That is the fact families most often get wrong. A couple can be certain the pension will "look after her", without realising the amount depends on a scheme neither of them could name, chosen by a service history rather than by anything they decided.

This page separates the three schemes for a family that has no idea which one applies, shows how service dates decide it, and sets out what an armed forces pension pays a spouse — and an unmarried partner — scheme by scheme. It does not quote fractions, because those change with the scheme and the circumstances and the only figure worth relying on is the one Veterans UK confirms for your own record.

The short answer: a spouse normally gets a pension for life

Start with the reassuring part. All three armed forces schemes provide a survivor's pension to a widow, widower or surviving civil partner, and in the modern schemes that pension is paid for the rest of the survivor's life. The rules on whether that pension can be lost on remarriage or moving in with a new partner have changed considerably over the years, and they differ between the schemes and by the date of death, so this is one of the specific points to confirm rather than assume either way.

There is usually a lump sum in the picture too, particularly where a serving member dies in service, and there may be a separate children's pension for dependent children. So the total your family receives is rarely a single number — it is a survivor's pension, possibly a lump sum, and possibly children's pensions, each governed by the scheme's own rules.

The complication, and the reason this page exists, is that the survivor's pension is calculated as a proportion of the member's pension, and that proportion is not the same in AFPS 75, AFPS 05 and AFPS 15. Two servicemen on identical pay can leave their wives noticeably different incomes, purely because of when they served.

Which of the three schemes applies to you

This is the question to settle first, because everything else follows from it. The schemes were introduced in sequence, and your service dates place you in one of them.

• AFPS 75 covers most people who served before 6 April 2005 and did not transfer to a later scheme. It is the oldest of the three and works differently from the others in several ways.
• AFPS 05 covers those who joined, or chose to transfer, between 6 April 2005 and 31 March 2015.
• AFPS 15 covers all regular and reserve personnel from 1 April 2015. Most serving members moved into it on that date unless they were close enough to retirement to be protected in their old scheme for a period.

Because service can straddle these dates, plenty of people have benefits in more than one scheme — some pension built up under AFPS 75 or 05 and the rest under AFPS 15. That is normal, and it means a spouse's survivor pension can be made up of pieces calculated under different rules. It is another reason not to guess: the only reliable answer comes from the service record, which Veterans UK holds.

You can find the official scheme guidance and the route to confirm a record through Veterans UK on GOV.UK, which administers armed forces pensions and can tell you which scheme, or schemes, a member's service falls under.

AFPS 75: the oldest scheme and its spouse pension

AFPS 75 was designed in an era when a service pension was assumed to pass to a wife, and its structure reflects that. It pays a surviving spouse or civil partner a proportion of the member's pension, and it has its own rules on how that figure is worked out and on the circumstances in which it is paid.

The important thing to understand about AFPS 75 is that it was built firmly around marriage. Its provisions for anyone other than a spouse or civil partner are much weaker than the later schemes, which matters enormously for couples who never married — a point we return to below. If a member's service was entirely before April 2005 and they were in AFPS 75, an unmarried partner may have no entitlement to a survivor's pension at all.

AFPS 75 also carries specific rules for children's pensions, which are paid for dependent children up to an age limit and can continue longer in full-time education. The way a children's pension ends abruptly at an age threshold is a trap in its own right, and not confined to the forces — we set it out in the age-23 cliff that stops a child's pension. If your family is relying on a children's element, pin down the exact end date with the administrator.

AFPS 05 and AFPS 15: the newer schemes

The two later schemes modernised survivor benefits in an important way: they can pay an eligible unmarried partner, not only a spouse or civil partner. That single change is the biggest practical difference between the old world and the new one for many families.

Both schemes pay a surviving spouse or civil partner a proportion of the member's pension for life. AFPS 15 is a career-average scheme, so the pension is built up across a career rather than pinned to a final salary, but the survivor still receives a defined proportion of what the member accrued. As with AFPS 75, the exact proportion differs between the schemes, so a spouse's income under AFPS 05 is not the same as under AFPS 15 for otherwise identical service. Ask for the figure specific to the scheme and service involved rather than working from a general impression.

Where a member has benefits split across schemes — some AFPS 05 and some AFPS 15, say — the survivor's pension is calculated on each part under its own rules and added together. Do not be surprised if the award letter shows more than one component. If you want reassurance that a payout, whatever its size, will actually reach your wife rather than being diverted, that is a separate question we deal with in whether a payout can go to creditors instead of your family.

If the death was caused by service

There is a second system running alongside the pension for deaths connected to service. Where a death is attributable to service, additional compensation may be payable under a separate scheme — broadly, the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme for service on or after 6 April 2005, and the older War Pensions Scheme for service before then. These can provide a survivor with a guaranteed income payment or a war widow's or widower's pension in addition to anything from AFPS.

The reason to flag this is simple: it is easy to claim the pension and never realise there was a second, attributable claim to make. If there is any question that the death was caused or made worse by service, ask Veterans UK about the compensation route as well as the pension route. The two are assessed separately, and missing one can leave a family with far less than they were entitled to.

Married, unmarried and divorced: who counts as a survivor

Who qualifies as a survivor is where the schemes diverge most, and it is where the wording of your own circumstances matters.

A spouse or civil partner qualifies under all three schemes, subject to each scheme's rules. An unmarried partner can qualify under AFPS 05 and AFPS 15 if the relationship meets the conditions — typically a substantial and exclusive relationship with financial dependence or interdependence, and often a requirement that no legal impediment prevented the couple marrying. Under AFPS 75, a partner of a member with only pre-2005 service may not qualify at all. The wider legal backdrop to cohabiting partners and survivor pensions, and the case that shifted it in public service schemes, is covered in what the Brewster ruling did and did not win for cohabitees.

A former spouse is a different matter again. Divorce generally ends entitlement to a survivor's pension, though a pension can be shared or earmarked as part of a divorce settlement, which is a separate arrangement. An ex-spouse may also have a claim against the estate itself in some circumstances, distinct from the pension — we explain when that can happen in whether an ex-wife can claim against your estate. If you have remarried, make sure the person you intend to benefit is the one the scheme will actually recognise.

How to confirm the scheme and what it actually pays

The single most useful thing you can do is get the position in writing before you need it. Ask Veterans UK, or the scheme administrator, to confirm which scheme or schemes the service falls under, the proportion a surviving spouse would receive, whether any children's pension applies and until when, and whether an unmarried partner would qualify. Then you have real numbers rather than assumptions.

If, having done that, you find the survivor's pension would leave your family short — because it is a proportion rather than the full income, or because a gap opens up between leaving service and the pension coming into payment — separate cover is the usual way to bridge it. A family income benefit policy pays a regular, tax-free income to a survivor for a set term rather than a single lump sum, which suits a household that would need a monthly figure to live on. You can get life insurance quotes and have an FCA-authorised broker set the income against the gap you have identified. We will not put a cost on it here, because that depends on the person and the underwriting. Another public scheme with its own survivor rules worth comparing, if a partner has NHS service too, is set out in how much of an NHS pension a partner actually receives, and the whole topic is drawn together in our guide to pensions, nominations and death benefits.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The armed forces pension schemes are run by the Ministry of Defence and apply across the whole of the United Kingdom, so AFPS 75, 05 and 15 pay a spouse in Scotland or Northern Ireland under the same scheme rules as one in England or Wales. Where you live does not change which scheme applies or the proportion it pays.

What differs by nation is the law around the estate rather than the pension. Scotland has its own prior rights and legal rights giving a surviving spouse and children fixed entitlements in an estate, and its own confirmation process in place of probate. Northern Ireland has its own succession and probate rules, separate from England and Wales. Those affect how the rest of a member's estate is dealt with, not the AFPS survivor pension, but if you are administering an estate as well as claiming a pension, make sure you are following the rules of the right jurisdiction.

Frequently asked questions

Which armed forces pension scheme applies to me?

AFPS 75 covers most who served before April 2005, AFPS 05 those who joined or transferred between April 2005 and March 2015, and AFPS 15 all regular and reserve personnel from 1 April 2015. Service that straddles those dates can leave you with benefits in more than one scheme, and Veterans UK can confirm from the service record which scheme, or schemes, apply.

How much does an armed forces widow receive?

Each scheme pays a surviving spouse or civil partner a set proportion of the member's pension for life, and those proportions differ between AFPS 75, 05 and 15, so the same service can produce different survivor incomes. Where a death is attributable to service, additional compensation may be payable under a separate scheme, so ask about both rather than assuming the pension is the whole entitlement.

Does an unmarried partner get anything?

AFPS 05 and AFPS 15 can pay an eligible partner who meets the relationship conditions, including a substantial and exclusive relationship with financial dependence or interdependence. AFPS 75 was built around spouses, so a partner of a member with only pre-2005 service may not qualify at all, which makes checking the scheme especially important for couples who never married.