Widower´s pension

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR the entitlement to a WIDOWER’S PENSION FROM THE PENSION INSURANCE SYSTEM

OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Eligibility criteria for a widower’s pension

A widower is entitled to a widower’s pension if he is a widower surviving his wife who

1) was receiving an old age pension, a disability pension or was entitled to an early old age pension,

2) fulfilled the eligibility criteria for entitlement to an old age pension up to the day of her death or

3) up to the day of her death achieved the required number of years of pension insurance for the entitlement to a disability pension or

4) died due to a work accident or an occupational disease.

A divorced husband is not entitled to a widower’s pension.

A widower becomes entitled to a widower’s pension on the day of his wife’s death, which is the day of her death stated in the death certificate (or the day on which the missing person did not survive) or the day given as the day of death in the lawful court ruling on a wife who is reported as dead.

The amount of the widower’s pension is 60% of the pension to which the deceased wife was or would have been entitled to.

Entitlement to the payment of a widower’s pension

Entitlement to the payment of the widower’s pension lasts for the period of one year after the wife’s death. After the expiration of one year, the entitlement to the payment lasts only if a widower meets at least one of the following conditions:

v he takes care of at least one dependent child who is entitled to an orphan’s pension after his/her parent’s death or who was brought up in the family of the deceased (i.e., the widower’s own child, an adopted child of the widower or a child who was given into care provided by the widower or the deceased wife replacing the parental care according to a decision of the proper body during the marriage),

• he is disabled due to a decreased capacity to perform a gainful activity by more than 70 %,
• he brought up at least three children (this condition is valid from August 1, 2006),
• he reached the age of 52 and brought up two children (this condition is valid from August 1, 2006), or
• he reached the pensionable age.

The upbringing of a child for these purposes is considered as the upbringing of a child from his/her birth until he or she is no longer a minor (i.e. until reaching the age of 18 or until the day on which such child marries, if this is sooner).

If a widower’s entitlement to the payment of a widower’s pension ceases because he no longer meets the criterion for the care of a dependent child or he ceases to be disabled due to a decreased ability to perform a gainful activity by more than 70 % and if subsequently, after some time he meets at least one of these criteria, he will again be entitled to the payment of the widower’s pension.

Limitation of action for the widower’s pension

Entitlement to the payment of a widower’s pension or its part falls under the statute of limitations after the expiration of a three-year period from the day on which the widower began receiving the widower’s pension or its part. The given period does not begin to run during the widower’s pension proceeding or during the period in which the participant of this proceeding is dependant on a guardian but this guardian has not yet been appointed.

Termination of the entitlement to the widower’s pension and its payment

Entitlement to the payment of the widower’s pension ceases if after the expiration of one year from his wife’s death, the widower does not meet at least one of the following criteria:

• he takes care of at least one dependent child who is entitled to an orphan’s pension after his/her parent’s death or who was brought up in the family of the deceased (i.e. the widower’s own child, an adopted child of the widower or a child who was given into care provided by the widower or the deceased wife replacing the parental care according to a decision of the proper body during the marriage),
• he is disabled due to a decreased capacity to perform a gainful activity by more than 70 %,
• he brought up at least three children (this condition is valid from August 1, 2006),
• he reached the age of 52 and brought up two children (this condition is valid from August 1, 2006) or
• he reached the pensionable age.

The upbringing of a child for these purposes is considered as the upbringing of a child from his/her birth until he or she is no longer a minor (i.e. until reaching the age of 18 or until the day on which such child marries, if this is sooner).

If a widower’s entitlement to the payment of a widower’s pension ceases because he no longer meets the criterion for the care of a dependent child or he ceases to be disabled due to a decreased ability to perform a gainful activity by more than 70 % and if subsequently, after some time he meets at least one of these criteria, he will again be entitled to the payment of the widower’s pension.

Entitlement to the widower’s pension ceases

• if the widower marries,
• by the day of entry into force of a court decision according to which the widower caused the death of his wife by intentional crime.

The entitlement of a natural person who fulfilled the eligibility criteria for entitlement to a widower’s pension and the eligibility criteria for the payment of a widower’s pension ends on the day of his death, unless Act No. 461/2003 Coll. on Social Insurance as amended by later regulations states otherwise.

Claiming the widower’s pension

A proceeding on the claiming of a widower’s pension from the pension insurance system of the Slovak Republic begins on the basis of a written claim of a natural person (the claimant) who is claiming the pension and its payment.

If the claimant’s residence is on the territory of a different state, to which the coordination regulations of the European Union pertain, or on the territory of a contractual state, the request for a widower’s pension from the pension insurance system of the Slovak Republic is in principle submitted through the institutions of the social insurance system of that state; this also applies to the situation if the claimant does not claim a pension from the pension insurance system of the state, on the territory of which he/she has his/her residence.

If the claimant’s residence is on the territory of a state, to which the coordination regulations of the European Union do not pertain, or which is not a contractual state, the request for a widower’s pension from the pension insurance system of the Slovak Republic is claimed at the Headquarters of the Social Insurance Company in Bratislava; or the claimant can file for it by completing the form “Request for Pension Filled Abroad” (see the Forms on slovak page: http://www.socpoist.sk/formulare-ohc/48016s).

 Documents necessary to claim the pension from the Pension insurance scheme of the Slovak Republic
 Declaration of Honor

Transfer of a widower’s pension

Pensions are paid in advance to a state, to which the coordination regulations of the European Union pertain, in regular monthly periods and always on the regularly repeated periodicity pay dates. In the case of a state, to which the coordination regulations of the European Union do not pertain, pensions are paid in regular three-month intervals always postponed after the submission of the “Life certificate of the pension beneficiary”.

The periodicity pay date is determined for each person who is granted a pension benefit by the Social Insurance Company Headquarters.

Widower’s pension may be transferred

• to the bank account (maintained in a domestic bank or the branch of a foreign bank) of the pension beneficiary
• in cash if the pension beneficiary so chooses.