E

Eligible child

To qualify as an eligible child, the child must meet these criteria, be:

• a natural child born before, on, or within 12 months of a member’s death
• an adopted child born before or on the date of the member’s death
• a step-child or a child accepted as part of the deceased member’s family and dependent on the member at the time of death.

A child sponsored by the member through a registered charity doesn’t qualify as an eligible child.

Also, the child must be:

• under age 18, or
• aged under 23 and in full-time education or vocational training (breaks in training don’t disqualify them), or
• under age 23 and unable to work because of physical or mental impairment, or
• over age 23, unable to work because of a permanent physical or mental impairment, and dependent on the member at the date of death. An independent registered doctor must confirm the permanence of the impairment.

Eligible cohabiting partner

To qualify as an eligible cohabiting partner, your partner must have lived with you for at least two continuous years before your death and meet all these conditions:

• both of you are, and have been, free to marry or enter into a civil partnership
• you have been living together as if married or in a civil partnership
• neither of you lived with someone else as if married or in a civil partnership
• your partner has been financially dependent on you, or you have been financially interdependent.

Financial dependence means you earn a higher income. Financially interdependent means you rely on joint finances to support your standard of living, even if contributions aren’t equal. For example, if your partner earns more, they may pay the mortgage and most of the bills and you may pay for the weekly shopping.

When you die, we’ll pay a survivor’s pension to your cohabiting partner if:

• all of the above conditions are met on the date of your death, and
• your partner proves they’ve met these conditions for at least two continuous years before your death.

You don’t have to nominate your cohabiting partner, but you can do so through your online pension account.

We’ll only pay a pension to your cohabiting partner if you paid into the LGPS after 31 March 2008.

Eligible jobholder

An eligible jobholder is a worker aged 22 to State Pension age earning more than £10,000 per year.