Widow’s pensions are the most paid contributory benefits by Social Security after retirement. These pensions are paid to more than 2.3 million people, including citizens who were separated or divorced from the originators of the pension, that is, from the people who died.
The General Law of Social Security recognizes the right of persons legally separated or divorced from the deceased person to a contributory widow’s pension “provided that they had not contracted a new marriage or had constituted a de facto couple”, .
As always, the beneficiaries of contributory pensions must prove certain conditions for their collection. In the specific case of the separated and divorced, certain requirements are required which, logically, differ from those required of the spouses or common-law partners of the deceased.
The fundamental premise that must be met for a separated or divorced person to collect a widow’s pension is that he or she was receiving a compensatory pension from the deceased. However, the following exceptions are excluded from this requirement:
-People who were separated or divorced before 2008 in marriages or unions of at least 10 years and provided that the separation or divorce took place less than 10 years before death and provided that there are children in common or, on the contrary , the survivor is 50 years of age or older at the time of death.
-People separated or divorced before 2008 after a marriage or union of at least 15 years, provided that they were 65 years of age or older at the time of death and that they are not entitled to any other public pension.
-Women victims of gender violence in deaths from 2008.
The amount of the widow’s pension for separated and divorced
The amounts of the widow’s pensions that the separated or divorced will receive move in the same amounts as those to which the surviving spouses are entitled:
-In general, the amount is 52% of the regulatory base, although it rises to 60% if the beneficiary is 65 years of age or older, does not receive income or pensions and their annual income is less than 7,707 euros.
-The amount of the widow’s pension is to be 70% of the regulatory base as long as these three requirements are met at the same time: having family responsibilities (this happens when living with people under 26 or over 26 with disability of at least 33% and when the income of the family unit divided by the number of members does not reach 75% of the Minimum Interprofessional Salary), that the pension is the main source of income of the family unit (more than 50% of the total ) and that the annual income is not greater than the sum of the limit for recognition of the minimum supplement for contributory pensions and the minimum widow’s pension with family responsibilities.
-In cases in which the death has occurred due to professional illness or accident at work as hygiene and/or safety measures at work are not guaranteed, the increase in the widow’s pension may be between 30 and 50 %.
What if several people are entitled to the same widow’s pension?
Although all the above situations refer to one beneficiary, there may be the circumstance that two people opt for the widow’s pension. This happens when the deceased rebuilds her life and the beneficiary does not. The cases contemplated by Social Security (and the amounts) appear in the .
Specifically, Social Security explains that the widow’s pension will be distributed proportionally to the time of cohabitation with the deceased, guaranteeing 40% for both the spouse and the separated person. The agency informs that if the surviving spouse needed extra amounts to reach that 40%, they would be subtracted from the former spouse’s pension.
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