Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Death benefits definition

What does Death benefits mean? Death benefits are payments or entitlements triggered by a member’s death under an occupational or personal pension scheme, or a death-in-service life policy. They commonly take the form of a lump sum death benefit, a survivors’/dependants’ pension (for a spouse, civil partner or children), or a refund of contributions or AVCs. The phrase is descriptive across pensions and life assurance; specific categories (for example, lump sum death benefit) are defined in UK and Irish tax legislation and guidance. Eligibility, form and amount are determined by the scheme’s trust deed and rules or contract terms, subject to overriding pensions and...

Death-in-service via registered schemes: standalone group life trusts, section 255 (PeA 2004) compliance, authorised payment rules and 2024 lump sum and death benefit allowance (UK)

Published by a LexisNexis Pensions expert

Practice notes

Ways of providing death-in-service benefits

Employers commonly provide their staff with death-in-service benefits (often referred to as 'life assurance' or 'life cover' benefits). This protection is ordinarily limited to employees (hence the term 'death in service', reflecting the label itself), although in certain situations an employer may decide to extend the benefit beyond retirement. Employers can deliver these benefits in three ways:

via a dedicated trust-based arrangement that, while registered as a pension scheme for the purposes of Part 4 of the Finance Act 2004 (FA 2004), provides only death-in-service benefits—such arrangements are frequently known as 'life cover only schemes', 'death-in-service schemes' or 'standalone life assurance schemes', and no other benefits
through a registered pension scheme (usually an occupational pension scheme) in which the death-in-service benefits form part of the broader benefit structure of the scheme as a whole. In this type of arrangement or model, a scheme member may receive:
- both death benefits (including death-in-service benefits) together with retirement benefits, or
- death-in-service benefits only, eg because the member has elected not to contribute to the pension scheme...

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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 21/05/2026

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