Firefighters 1992 scheme – Active

Death grant

If you were to die in service as a member of the FPS1992, a death grant would be payable. This would normally be two times your pensionable pay as at the date of death or, if you were absent from duty without pay at that time, two times your pensionable pay immediately before the absence began. If you are working part-time hours the pensionable pay would be the part-time rate.

Tax rules prevent the payment of a death grant in respect of a person who has attained age 75 but it is unlikely that a firefighter would still be serving at that age.

The fire and rescue authority would pay the death grant to the firefighter's legal spouse or civil partner provided they were not living apart at the time of death. (This means more than a physical separation, e.g. as would be the case if the firefighter was away from home attending a training course; it implies recognition by at least one of the spouses or partners that the marriage or partnership is at an end.)

If the firefighter was unmarried, not in a civil partnership, or was "living apart", the death grant would be paid to his/her personal representatives.

There is no death grant payable if the firefighter had already left the service, or opted out of the FPS1992, at the date of death.