These are the widowhood pensions for the separated and divorced

Widowhood pensions are paid each month to more than 2.3 million people in our country. Among its beneficiaries are not only the spouses of the people who have generated the right to the pension, but also couples who have subsequently separated or divorced from the deceased.

Social Security explains on its website that, in certain separation or divorce cases, the ex-spouses have the right to collect the widow’s pension. For this, it is a condition It is essential that while the deceased was alive, they pay him a compensatory pension whose payment is interrupted with his death. In addition, in the event of divorce, a widow’s pension may be received “as long as they have not contracted a new marriage or formed a common-law partnership”.

On the contrary, those women who have proven their status as a compensatory pension will not need this status. victims of gender violence at the time of separation or divorce. This aspect is valid, yes, for deaths that occurred after 2008.

In other cases, the receipt of a compensatory pension is not necessary to collect the widow’s pension. Happens in separations or divorces prior to 2008 provided that the previous marriage bond was at least 10 years, that said separation or divorce took place less than 10 years before death and that either there are children in common or the survivor is at least 50 years old at the time of death .

The collection of the widow’s pension is also allowed in those divorces and separations prior to 2008 without the right to compensatory pension and without fulfilling the requirements of the previous paragraph when the beneficiaries are 65 years of age or older, do not have the right to another public pension and the duration of marriage reaches at least 15 years.

According to Social Security, the amount of the widow’s pension that the divorced and separated can receive depends on both their circumstances and the number of beneficiaries of that pension:

-If you are the only beneficiary and receive a compensatory pension, you are entitled to the full amount but marked by the amount of that compensatory pension.

-If you are the only beneficiary and you are a victim of gender violence, you have the right to a full pension.

-If you are the only beneficiary after a divorce or separation prior to 2008 and without compensatory pension, you will only receive the proportional part of the time you lived with the deceased.

-If there are several beneficiaries, it will be distributed proportionally to the coexistence with the deceased. The legal separated is guaranteed 40% of the pension, as well as the surviving spouse or partner.

The amount of widow’s pensions

Framed within the minimum amounts for widow’s pensions and the maximum amount for pensions for 2021, Social Security reports on its website the amounts of these widow’s pensions that also apply in cases of separated and divorced people:

-In general, the amount of the widow’s pension is 52% of the deceased’s regulatory base. This amount increases by 60% of the regulatory base for people of at least 65 years of age, without the right to other pensions, without income from self-employment or other people’s work and with annual incomes below 7,707 euros.

-The 70% of the regulatory base as long as three requirements are met at the same time: having family responsibilities (living with minors under 26 years of age, minors in foster care, minors with guardianship for adoption purposes or over 26 years with a disability of at least 33%), that the pension is the main source of income (that is greater than 50% of their annual income) and that their total annual income does not exceed the result of adding the limit for the recognition of the minimum complement for contributory pensions to the minimum widow’s pension with family dependents (in 2021 this amount is 18,877.60 euros).

This amount serves, in turn, as a limit for the amount of the pension: it cannot exceed those 18,877.60 euros per year and, in the event that the regulatory base to which you are entitled is higher, the amount will be subtracted up to that limit.