Local Government Pension Scheme

Underpin protection does not change the death grant paid if you die as an active member. This is because the death grant is based on your pay, not on the pension you have built up.

If you die after taking your pension and a death grant is paid, the amount paid is based on your yearly pension. If your pension was increased because of your underpin protection, this will increase the death grant paid.

If you die as a deferred member, the death grant is based on your yearly deferred pension. If you are protected by the underpin, the provisional underpin figures from when you left the scheme will be used to work out if the yearly deferred pension should be increased.

You can find out more about death grants in the LGPS in our After you die FAQs.

Pension funds will review death grants paid before 1 October 2023 in respect of protected deferred and pensioner members. If underpin protection means that the death grant should have been higher, the extra will be paid.

If you were paid a death grant following the death of a protected member before 1 October 2023 and you do not hear from the pension fund in October 2023, do not be concerned.

• LGPS pension funds have thousands of payments to review. This is a huge exercise which will take many months to complete.
• In many cases, the member’s pension will not increase because of underpin protection. If it doesn’t, the death grant will not increase.

A pension will be paid to your eligible children and your spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner after you die. You can find out more about survivor pensions in our After you die FAQs.

If you are protected by the underpin, your pension fund will work out whether any survivor pension should be increased. A part of the increase that applied to your pension (or would have applied, if you die before taking your pension) is added to the survivor pension.

However, if your pension was adjusted for early or late payment, those adjustments are ignored when working out the survivor pension and any increase to it.

If a protected member died before 1 October 2023, the pension fund will look again at any survivor pension that has been paid. If the pension should have been increased, they will pay arrears of pension back to the date the survivor pension was first paid, plus interest.

If you started to receive a survivor pension before 1 October 2023 and you have not yet heard from your pension fund, do not be concerned:

• LGPS pension funds have thousands of payments to review. This is a huge exercise which will take many months to complete.
• In many cases, the survivor pension will not increase because of the member’s underpin protection.