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Health service staff in Scotland belong to the NHS Pension Scheme (Scotland), administered by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA). It has three parts: the 1995 section, the 2008 section and the 2015 scheme. When a member dies, the scheme can pay a lump sum and pensions for a surviving spouse, civil partner or nominated partner and for dependent children. What is paid depends on which section the member was in and whether they were working, had left, or had retired.
You can tell the SPPA in three ways:
Have ready:
The SPPA will stop any further payments, work out any under- or overpayment, and deal with claims from eligible family members. It says the assessment usually takes around eight weeks. Claims are made on the SPPA's own forms, listed on its NHS forms page.
The SPPA publishes different rules for:
Many members have service in more than one. Payslips, annual benefit statements or the SPPA itself will confirm which applies.
For death-in-service lump sums in the 1995 and 2008 sections, check the SPPA's death benefits page for the member's section. We have not given a figure here because we could not confirm it from the SPPA's own wording.
The SPPA lists the same long-term survivor's pension rates whether the member died in service or after retirement. Each is a percentage of the member's pension before any of it was exchanged for a lump sum:
| Section | Spouse, civil partner or nominated partner |
|---|---|
| 1995 section | 50% |
| 2008 section | 37.5% |
| 2015 scheme | 33.75% |
A partner who was not married or in a civil partnership can qualify as a nominated partner. The SPPA's conditions include the couple living together at the time of death in an exclusive, committed and long-term relationship for a continuous period of at least two years. For deferred members, it also requires at least two years' qualifying service.
The SPPA sets a child's pension at half the survivor's rate for one child, or the full survivor's rate shared equally between two or more. That makes one child's pension 25% of the member's pension in the 1995 section, 18.75% in the 2008 section and 16.875% in the 2015 scheme, before any lump sum exchange. Age limits and conditions differ by section, so ask the SPPA what applies.
This is a Scottish scheme, but the member's estate may be dealt with in Scotland, England or elsewhere, depending on where they lived. In Scotland the court process is called confirmation, not probate. Lump sums the SPPA pays directly to a nominated person or a dependant do not normally depend on confirmation. Anything paid to the estate is handled with the rest of the estate.
From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and death benefits come into the estate for inheritance tax. HMRC has said that death in service benefits from registered pension schemes, and dependants' scheme pensions from defined benefit schemes, are excluded, and that benefits passing to a surviving spouse or civil partner stay exempt. See pensions and inheritance tax from April 2027.
No. NHS staff in Scotland belong to the NHS Pension Scheme (Scotland), run by the SPPA. NHS staff in England and Wales are covered by NHS Pensions; see our NHS pension death benefit guide.
Yes. The SPPA lists Tell Us Once as one of the ways to tell it about a death.
It says assessing death benefits usually takes around eight weeks, and it will tell you if it needs longer.
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