Is my fathers estranged wife entitled to claim his pension?

[nads75]

Hello,
My father recently passed away leaving no will. He was 61 years old and no yet in receipt of a pension, but was claimng pension credit and out of work. His wife and he split up nearly 2 yrs ago now and this has left him bankrupt and finding out she had taken a lot of debt out in his name. They had their house repossesed and she had access to his mothers savings account which we have since found out she cleared out of £20,000. He was in the process of charging her via a soliciter regarding fraud and the theft of the monies (although she had put herself as a named person on the account so will obviously get away with it) but it was obvious that they were not freindly etc.
Ive now read that when its time for his pension to be issued, she as his wife (they had not yet began divorce proceedings) will be able to claim some or all of that pension?
Obviously both myself and my two siblings (not to mention the whole family) would be appaled if she could in fact do this, so im wondering if there is any was that i can prevent this from happening (my dad did not have a will) I am the executer of his estate.

[dzug2]

The basic answer whether you are talking state or private pension is yes she can and there is nothing you can do to stop it. She is probably entitled to a widow's pension as of now.

With a private pension the trustees MAY have some powers

[dzug2]

And sorry to rub things in but she is also entitled to his estate (up to a certain value anyway) under the intestacy rules. You don't have much option in this

A nasty situation for you

[nads75]

Ok thanks for that. His estate is about £400 in benefits in his basic bank account as she took everything from him. very sad to hear that she even gets that from him. my poor dad.x

[dzug2]

But if he's bankrupt that £400 should go towards paying his debts, not to her

[B00]

You can claim a state pension for someone who has died??

[dzug2]

You can claim a widows pension

You can (subject to conditions) claim a pension based on the contributions of a deceased spouse if that produces a better result than your own contributions.

Not directly the pension of the deceased person - but very much connected to it.

[dothawkes31]

what was she living on? If she had this 20K was she aLSO claiming benefits? Ring the benefit agency fraud line and the tax office she won't have declared this is income.

[B00]

Ahhh thanks for clearing that one up for me dzug :-)