Scottish Public Pension Agency (SPPA) widows’ pension: FOI release

Information requested

1. What information was given to widows when a widow’s pension first comes into payment (death or leaving date prior to 01/04/2008). Please provide copies of the information provided.

2. What further information is sent to a widow once the pension is in payment (death or leaving date prior to 01/04/2008) between 2006 and today’s date. Please provide copies of the information provided.

3. Do you send letters to windows periodically to verify they are still living alone and not remarried or cohabiting (death or leaving date prior to 01/04/2008) between 2006 and today’s date? If so, please provide copies.

4. Do you require a countersigned certificate to verify a widow has not remarried or cohabited (death or leaving date prior to 01/04/2008) between 2006 and today’s date? If so, please provide copies.

5. If a widow remarries or cohabits (death or leaving date prior to 01/04/2008), what information do you send to the widow between 2006 and today’s date . Please provide copies.

6. Do you send further letters to those whose pension has been withdrawn as a result of remarriage or cohabitation to verify their circumstances are still the same (i.e. they are still remarried or cohabiting) (death or leaving date prior to 01/04/2008) between 2006 and today’s date? If so, please provide copies.

7. What information do you send a widow if a pension is reinstated (death or leaving date prior to 01/04/2008), between 2006 and today’s date? If so, please provide copies.

8. How many adult survivors have lost their entitlement to receive a “widow’s pension” because they have either remarried or started to cohabit (death or leaving date prior to 01/04/2008) between 2006 and today’s date.

9. How many adult survivors have had their pension reinstated in circumstances where they have divorced their new spouse or ceased cohabitation with their new partner (death or leaving date prior to 01/04/2008) between 2006 and today’s date

Response

Attached is most of the information requested, including sample documents in the attachments. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 12 of FOISA applies to that information. This exemption relates to information that would cost a public authority more than £600 to provide. For questions where the exemption applies, I have provided an explanation below and a response for a narrower date range (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20) which was available without manual interrogation of each individual member record.

1. Please refer to attachments.

2. Once a widow’s pension is in payment, SPPA issues a payslip and a P60 annually. A copy of the payslip and P60 are attached.

3. No, SPPA does not periodically send any follow up letters to check benefit entitlement due to marital status. A reminder is included on the payslip for the pensioner to inform us of any change of these circumstances (copy attached).

4. No.

5. Please see attachments.

6. No, the onus is on the member to inform us of any change in circumstances.

7. There is no standard letter for this. We send a bespoke letter advising similar to the following: “After considering your application for reinstatement of your widow’s pension, I am pleased to advise your widow’s pension will be reinstated from <date>”. This date will normally be the date we received the reinstatement request.

8. For dates 2006-2017, an exemption under Section 12 of FOISA applies. Section 12 relates to the cost of responding to the request. Public authorities are not required to provide information where the cost of responding to the request exceeds £600. We are able to provide data for 2017-2020, which is held in a different format to the previous period. In order to provide a response to your request for information about the period 2006-2017, we would have to manually interrogate each individual record, and the cost to the SPPA would be over the £600 cap. We have however been able to review data from 1 April 2017-31 March 2020 in a systematic way, so can provide you with information for that time period. Over the three year period that we were able to review, there was one widow’s pension case where benefits were ceased due to re-marriage or co-habitation.

9. As above, for dates 2006-2017, an exemption under Section 12 of FOISA applies as per question 8. Again, we are able to provide data for 2017-2020, which is held in a different format to the previous period. Over the three year period no cases were re-instated due to the circumstances requested above.

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FOI202100242543 - Information released

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