New Starter Guide December 2017 | Page 36

Eligible children Eligible children are your children. They must, at the date of your death: • be your natural child (who must be born within 12 months of your death), or • be your adopted child, or • be your step-child or a child accepted by you as being a member of your family (this doesn’t include a child you sponsor for charity) and be dependent on you. Eligible children must meet the following conditions: • be under age 18, or • be aged 18 or over and under 23 and in full-time education or vocational training (although SYPA can continue to treat the child as an eligible child notwithstanding a break in full-time education or vocational training), or • be unable to engage in gainful employment because of physical or mental impairment and either: - has not reached the age of 23, or - the impairment is, in the opinion of an independent registered medical practitioner, likely to be permanent and the child was dependent on you at the date of your death because of that mental or physical impairment. Eligible cohabiting partner An eligible cohabiting partner is a partner you are living with who, at the date of your death, has met all of the following conditions for a continuous period of at least 2 years: • you and your cohabiting partner are, and have been, free to marry each other or enter into a civil partnership with each other, and • you and your cohabiting partner have been living together as if you were a married couple, or civil partners, and • neither you or your cohabiting partner have been living with someone else as if you/they were a married couple or civil partners, and • either your cohabiting partner is, and has been, financially dependent on you or you are, and have been, financially interdependent on each other. the mortgage and most of the bills, and you may pay for the weekly shopping. On your death, a survivor’s pension would be paid to your cohabiting partner if: • all of the above criteria apply at the date of your death, and • your cohabiting partner satisfies your pension fund that the above conditions had been met for a continuous period of at least 2 years immediately prior to your death. You are not required to complete a form to nominate a cohabiting partner for entitlement to a cohabiting partner’s pension. However, you can provide your pension fund with your cohabiting partner’s details. Your pension fund will require evidence upon your death to check that the conditions for a cohabiting partner’s pension are met. Eligible Jobholder An eligible jobholder is a worker who is aged at least 22 and under State Pension Age and who earns more than the annual amount of £10,000 (2016/17 figure). Final pay This is usually the pay in respect of (i.e. due for) your final year of scheme membership on which you paid contributions, or one of the previous 2 years if this is higher, and includes your normal pay, contractual shift allowance, bonus, contractual overtime (but not non- contractual overtime), Maternity Pay, Paternity Pay, Adoption Pay, Shared Parental Pay and any other taxable benefit specified in your contract as being pensionable. Your partner is financially dependent on you if you have the highest income. Financially interdependent means that you rely on your joint finances to support your standard of living. It doesn’t mean that you need to be contributing equally. For example, if your partner’s income is a lot more than yours, he or she may pay 34 SouthYorkshirePensionsAuthority SouthYorkshirePensionsAuthority 35