Vol. 577 No. 4
122 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Finance his plans to amend the regulations in the Civil Service pensioners scheme; and if he will remove an anomaly whereby the widow gets only half of the Civil Service pensioner's pension on surviving their husband but the husband holds onto theirs and still gets a social welfare pension if their spouse dies. [31501/03]
Generally, civil servants have two pension schemes – a scheme to provide for their own personal pension and an associated pension scheme to provide, in the event of their death, for their spouse and eligible children. The civil servant's pension ends with his or her death. The spouses and children's scheme only becomes payable when the civil servant dies. It does not make any difference if the civil servant is male or female – the same rules apply. Nor is social welfare pension dependent on the gender of the civil servant.
