Spouse's pension

When you contribute to a pension fund you are not only earning entitlement for your senior years, when you cease working, but also ensuring to some extent your family's situation in the event of your death. Upon your death your spouse is entitled to a spouse's pension from the fund.

How long is the spouse's pension paid?

• If you have children under 23 years of age: Your spouse will receive a spouse's pension until the youngest child has reached the age of 23.
• If your spouse is disabled and younger than 65 years of age: The spouse's pension is paid as long as the spouse is disabled until he/she reaches 67 years of age.
• Inflation-indexed spouse's pension: This is based on indexing the member's pension contributions up until and including December 2014 to present price levels. This means the spouse will receive a pension based on the fund member's contributions plus indexation. The number of months the indexed spouse's pension is paid is calculated by dividing the total amount of the indexed contributions, net of indexed pension payments, by the monthly amount of the spouse's pension. 
• If your spouse is born before 1925: Lifelong pension is paid.
• If your spouse is born in 1925-1945: Your spouse will receive a lifelong pension but the amount will decrease on a sliding scale according to the year of birth.
• As indicated above, the amount of the spouse's pension varies but is always paid for at least in full for three years and then followed by 50% for another 2 years. 

How is the spouse's pension calculated?

The spouse's pension is 60% of the fund member's earned entitlement at age 67 years. A member who satisfies the following conditions is entitled to have his/her entitlement extrapolated to age 65:

• has paid pension contributions for at least 3 of the 4 years prior to decease
• has paid pension contributions for at least 6 months of the last year prior to decease
• has paid pension contributions of at least ISK 80,000* each of the three years.

The spouse's pension will therefore be 60% of the earned and extrapolated entitlement.

*80,000 is the basic reference amount and must be inflation-indexed at the beginning of each year using the CPI, with the base index 230, see Art. 16.8 of the fund's Articles of Association.

Who is a spouse?

A spouse is the person who, upon the death of a fund member, is:

• married to the deceased person
• in a registered partnership with the deceased person
• a co-habiting partner of the deceased person.

The financial partnership of the spouse and the deceased may not have been divided prior to the latter's death, i.e. married or cohabiting couples must have had joint finances at the time of death.

Can the spouse's pension be cancelled?

If the spouse marries again or becomes a co-habiting partner in the period during which he/she is entitled to a spouse's pension, the entitlement is cancelled.

Residence outside of Iceland

Pensioners whose legal address is registered outside of Iceland must send us a life certificate every year before May 15th. If the pension fund does not receive the certificate, pension payments will stop from June 1st the same year. The life certificate can either be sent via mail or email to skrifstofa@live.is.