Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Dependant definition

What does Dependant mean? In pensions law and practice, a dependant is a person who may receive death benefits (a dependants’ pension and/or a lump sum) from a member’s pension scheme because they relied on the member for support. For UK registered pension schemes, the term is defined for tax purposes in the Finance Act 2004 and HMRC guidance: it normally includes the member’s spouse or civil partner; a qualifying child (typically under age 23, or older if dependent due to physical or mental impairment); and any other individual who was financially dependent on, mutually interdependent with, or dependent due to disability...

UK pension death benefits: defining dependants, nominees and successors, evidencing dependency, scheme rule limits, drawdown succession and pension sharing exclusions

Published by a LexisNexis Pensions expert

Practice notes

Types of Death benefits payable

There are two categories of scheme benefits payable when a member dies:

pension death benefits
lump sum death benefits

Up to 5 April 2015, the pension death benefit provisions in the Finance Act 2004 (FA 2004), s 167, meant a pension death benefit could only be paid to a Dependant of the member for it to be an authorised payment. ‘Dependant’ is set out in FA 2004 Sch 28 Pt 2 para 15. From 6 April 2015, a pension death benefit may be settled not only on a dependant of the deceased member but also on a Nominee or a Successor and still be treated as an authorised payment. ‘Nominee’ is defined in FA 2004 Sch 28 Pt 2 para 27A, while ‘successor’ is defined in FA 2004 Sch 28 Pt 2 para 27F. In particular, the following pension death benefits may be provided:

a dependant’s scheme pension—payable from a defined benefits arrangement, a money purchase arrangement or a collective money purchase arrangement
an annuity—payable from a money purchase arrangement, either to a dependant, a nominee or a successor
a dependant’s drawdown...

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Wyn Derbyshire

gunnercooke LLP

Wyn is a partner at gunnercooke LLP and specialises in pensions, trust and employment law in all industry sectors, dealing with the transactional, advisory and documentation aspects.He also has wide experience of the pensions implications of heavyweight corporate transactions and flotations, the issues arising from the establishment and merger of pension schemes, and sex equalisation and other discrimination issues in respect of benefits provided by pension schemes. In addition, he provides advice to pension scheme trustees generally.Recent transactions include advising Amcor on pension matters relating to the acquisition of Alcan business and the acquisition of Northern Foods PLC by Boparan Holdings.He is a co-author (with Stephen Hardy and Stephen Maffey) of TUPE: Law and Practice, published by Spiramus Press (now in its 4th edition), and co-author (with Stephen Hardy and David Wicks) of Money & Work, published by Spiramus Press in August 2007. He has also...

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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