Firefighters 2006 scheme – Active
Death grant
If you were to die in service as a member of FPS2006, a death grant would be payable. This would normally be three times your pensionable pay as at the date of death. (If you were absent from duty without pay at that time, the death grant would be three times your pensionable pay on the last occasion that you received it.)
If you are working part-time hours the pensionable pay would be the part-time rate. For someone who has worked variable hours, account would be taken of this. In these circumstances the death grant would be the greater of:
- 3 x part-time rate of pensionable pay based on hours at date of death, or
- 3 x whole-time pensionable pay x pensionable service/qualifying service.
Similarly, if the firefighter had a split pension, the death grant would be the greatest of:
- 3 x pensionable pay at the date of death (if part-time, this would be the part-time rate based on hours at the date of death), or
- 3 x whole-time pensionable pay x pensionable service/qualifying service, or
- 3 x pensionable pay based on a proportion of the pensionable pay at the date at which the pension was split and at the date of death.
The fire and rescue authority has absolute discretion as to whom to pay the death grant but you may nominate the person(s) that you would wish to be the recipient(s). The authority would take your wishes into account when making their decision.
A death grant on the above principles would be payable only where a firefighter dies while a serving member of FPS2006. But a death grant may also be payable if a former firefighter dies after retirement, having been in receipt of pension payments for less than five years. In these circumstances, the death grant would be equivalent to the total pension that would have been paid for five years less the instalments paid up to the date of death. It is, in effect a five year "guarantee" of pension. Again, the fire and rescue authority has absolute discretion as to whom the death grant should be paid but they may have regard to a nomination made by the firefighter.
There is no death grant payment in respect of a deferred pension which has not come into payment at the date of death of the firefighter.
What if you are a retained firefighter?
If a member of FPS2006 dies in service, a death grant would be payable. For a regular whole-time firefighter this would normally be three times his/her pensionable pay as at the date of death. For a part-time regular firefighter or a retained firefighter, the death grant would be the greater of –
(a) 3 times actual (i.e. part-time or retained) pensionable pay at the date of death, expressed as an annual rate, or
(b) 3 times a proportion of the pensionable pay of a whole-time regular firefighter in a similar role.
In the case of (b), for a retained firefighter the proportion would be based on the total pensionable service credited to him/her at the date of death, and his/her total qualifying service. For example, if a retained firefighter had 5 years 291 days (5.7973 years) of qualifying service (the "calendar" length of scheme membership) of which 1.6915 years counted as pensionable, and a whole-time regular firefighter in an equivalent role would be on an annual rate of pay of £28,000, (b) would be assessed as:
3 x 1.6915/5.7973 x £28,000 = £24,509.00
Apportionment would also be applied if the firefighter was covered by the "two-pension" option following a reduction in pay.
If a FPS2006 pensioner member dies under the age of 75 having received a pension for less than 5 years after retirement, there would be a post-retirement death grant based on the difference between the amount of pension received and the pension that would have been payable over the 5 year period. Because all the adjustments for variable-time service will have been made at the time of a retained firefighter's retirement, no additional special arrangements are necessary. This would apply also where the pension in payment was a deferred pension, but there is no death grant payable where a deferred pension has not come into payment.
The fire and rescue authority has absolute discretion as to whom to pay the death grant but you may nominate the person(s) that you would wish to be the recipient(s). The authority would take your wishes into account when making their decision.
