SERPS Inheritance rules
SERPS (the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme) was also known as the additional State Pension. It ran from 6 April 1978 to 5 April 2002 when it was reformed by the State Second Pension. A person who was in employment may have paid into SERPS.
SERPS is paid from State Pension age to the person who has contributed to the scheme.
There are also conditions that allow some or all of a person's SERPS entitlement to be inherited by their spouse husband, wife or civil partner when the SERPS contributor dies. Since 6 October 2002, the maximum amount of SERPS pension a person can inherit will now depend on the date that their late husband, wife or civil partner would have reached State Pension age.
A person may have joined a private pension scheme instead of SERPS.
This is called 'contracting-out'.
Any SERPS earned from April 1978 to April 1997 is reduced if a person was contracted-out during that period. This reduction is called the 'contracted-out deduction'.
From April 1997 to April 2002, a person who was contracted-out could earn no SERPS at all.
The State Second Pension provides a more generous additional State Pension for low and moderate earners. Access has also been extended to include certain carers and people with long term illness and disability whose working lives have been interrupted or shortened. The inherited SERPS rules do not apply to State Second Pension. The maximum amount of State Second Pension a person may pass on to a surviving husband, wife or civil partner is 50%.
State Second Pension
Read more about the State Second Pension (also known as additional State Pension) in our A to Z section, or read or print our guide State Pensions - your guide
Inheriting SERPS
You can get extra information on inheriting SERPS by reading or printing our guide to SERPS
To find out more about additional State Pensions (SERPS and Second State Pension), read and print A guide to State Pensions
Remember that the information on this website is only a general guide and is not a full and authoritative statement of the law.