Pensions for partners

Unmarried partners of civil servants and MPs will be entitled to widow's or widower's pensions from October this year. The change will mean that unmarried heterosexual and lesbian and gay partners in long-term financially interdependent relationships will have the same rights to benefit from their partner's pension as married couples. The move has lead to calls for other public sector schemes to be similarly amended. Teachers, health service and local government workers are also currently denied the right to inherit their partners pension unless they are married.