Widow’s or widower’s pension

When am I entitled to a widow’s pension?

Entitlement to a widow’s pension is subject to the following terms and conditions:

• the fulfilment of the general conditions on the part of the deceased insured person or recipient of certain pension and disability insurance entitlements;
• the fulfilment of special conditions by the widow(er).

In order to establish the conditions of eligibility for a widow-er’s pension, a final decision declaring the death of the insured person or recipient of entitlements is also taken into consideration.

What general conditions apply to a widow-er’s pension in relation to the deceased?

What specific conditions must I meet to qualify for a widow-er’s pension?

How is the basis for assessing the widow-er’s pension determined?

How is a widow-er’s pension assessed?

Am I entitled to a portion of a widow-er’s pension?

Could I lose my entitlement to a widow-er’s pension if I get married?

Am I able to receive a widow-er’s pension at a lower age than that set for 2019?

What do I need to do to claim a widow-er’s pension?

What general conditions apply to a widow-er’s pension in relation to the deceased?

If the deceased was not yet a recipient of entitlements under compulsory insurance, they had to meet the conditions for an early-retirement, old-age or disability pension (their death is deemed to be the occurrence of a category I disability) by the time of their death.

If the deceased was a recipient of entitlements, the conditions are met if they received:

• an early-retirement, old-age or disability pension under compulsory insurance scheme or
• entitlements on the basis of disability under compulsory insurance scheme.

If an insured person or a recipient of entitlements died as a result of an injury at work or an occupational disease, the conditions are met on their side regardless of the number of years of pensionable service completed.

What specific conditions must I meet to qualify for a widow-er’s pension?

If you are a widow(er) and your spouse dies in 2020, you will receive a widow-er’s pension:

1. by reaching a certain age, if:

• you had reached the age of 57 by the time the insured person or recipient of entitlements died or
• you had not reached the age of 57 by the time the insured person or recipient of entitlements died, but had reached the age of 52, but only after a waiting period, which lasts until the age of 57 is reached, is completed;

1. regardless of age, provided that:

• you were totally incapable of work at the time of the death of the insured person or recipient of entitlements, or became so within a year of their death, or
• following the death of the insured person or the recipient of entitlements, you are left with a child or children whom you are obliged to maintain and who are entitled to a survivor’s pension through the deceased;
• during the period of receipt or use of an acquired entitlement to a widow-er’s pension, you have children and you become completely unable to work, whereby you retain entitlement to a pension for as long as the incapacity lasts;
• during the period of receipt or use of an acquired entitlement to a widow-er’s pension or the receipt of an acquired entitlement to a widow-er’s pension with children, you reach the age of 57, whereby you retain this entitlement permanently;
• the receipt of the acquired entitlement to a widow-er’s pension (with children) stops before you reach the age of 57 but after you have reached the age of 52, whereby the entitlement  can again be claimed at the age of 57;
• you (the widow) gave birth to a child of the deceased insured person or recipient of entitlements no more than 300 days after their death.

More details on who is entitled to a widow-er’s pension 

How is the basis for assessing a widow-er’s pension determined?

If the deceased was in receipt of a pension, the widow-er’s pension is, as a rule, assessed from the pension the deceased was entitled to at the time of their death.

If the deceased insured person was not in receipt of a pension, the widow’s pension is, as a rule, assessed from the disability pension the deceased would have been entitled to.

Exception:

If the deceased was in receipt of an old-age or disability pension equal to the guaranteed pension or to a proportionate part of this pension, the basis for assessing a widow-er’s pension is the amount of the pension payable to them had they not been entitled to a guaranteed pension.

How is a widow-er’s pension assessed?

If only a widow(er) is entitled to a widow-er’s pension, that pension is assessed at the rate of 70 % of the base.

More details on the assessment of a widow-er’s pension 

Can I receive a widow-er’s pension in addition to my own old-age, early retirement or disability pension?

If you are entitled to an early retirement, old-age or disability pension under Slovenian legislation, as well as to a widow-er’s pension, you may receive one pension of your choice.

However, if it is more favourable to you, you may receive 15 % of the widow’s pension in addition to the early-retirement, old-age or disability pension.

Are there restrictions on the payment of a portion of the widow-er’s pension?

The amount of a portion of the widow’s pension may not exceed 11.7 % per cent of the minimum pension base.

In addition to this restriction, the amount of the total payment of your own and a portion of the widow’s pension is also restricted. The total amount may not exceed the old-age pension of a man assessed in relation to the minimum pension base for 40 years of pensionable service.

If a person’s own pension exceeds the threshold laid down for the total amount of their own and a portion of the widow-er’s pension, that portion of the widow-er’s pension may not be paid to the beneficiary.

A portion of the widow-er’s pension is paid to you on the basis of an application from the first day of the month following submission of the application.

Could I lose my entitlement to a widow-er’s pension if I get married?

If you remarry, you lose your entitlement to a widow-er’s pension or a portion of the widow-er’s pension if the marriage takes place before you reach the age of 60. You also lose this entitlement if you enter a life partnership, which is equivalent to marriage in terms of its legal consequences under the law governing marriage and family relations, before you reach the age of 60.

Under what circumstances can I restore a widow-er’s pension that I lost as a result of remarrying?

If you lost entitlement to a widow-er’s pension because you remarried and did not qualify for a widow-er’s pension through your new spouse, the lost entitlement through your former spouse or person equal in law with a spouse may be restored if:

• you still have a child/children from the first marriage, after the termination of the new marriage, who is/are entitled to a survivor’s pension and you are obliged to maintain them or
• you have reached the age required for entitlement to a widow-er’s pension.

Am I able to receive a widow-er’s pension at a lower age than that set for 2020?

The conditions applying to a widow(er) are, as a rule, assessed on the day the insured person or the recipient of entitlements dies, except where a widow-er’s pension is acquired and there are children whom the widow(er) is obliged to maintain.

Due to the transitional period of a gradual increase in age at which a widow-er’s pension may be claimed from 53 to 58 years or an increase in the waiting period from 48 to 53 years of age (by 6 months each year from 2013 to 2022), the required ages for receipt of a widow-er’s pension are different for each year of death.

What do I need to do to claim a widow’s or widower’s pension?

In order to claim a widow-er’s pension, the condition of compulsory insurance termination must be met, in addition to the conditions applying to the deceased and those applying to the widow(er) in the event that the widow(er) is still included in compulsory insurance. These are the same conditions that apply to the claiming of an old-age or early-retirement pension.

Where is the claim filed?

If you live in Slovenia, you file a claim for a widow-er’s pension with ZPIZ:

• electronically via the ‘Moj eZPIZ’ system using a qualified digital certificate;
• in person at the nearest ZPIZ regional office;
• by post (form).

Upon your claim for a widow-er’s pension, ZPIZ commences a procedure to issue a decision on a widow-er’s pension claim.

If you live in another EU/EEA Member State or in a country with which Slovenia has signed a social security agreement (LINK), you may also file a claim with the pension insurance provider in that country. The claim will then be sent to ZPIZ.

You may contact pension specialists at ZPIZ for any further information and clarifications concerning widow-er’s pensions:

• in person at the nearest regional office during official working hours;
• by telephone or email;