When a spouse is lost, there are many upheavals and, in addition to the need to deal with mourning, major steps must be taken. In a difficult situation, many people forget essential devices, which can be of great help in these delicate moments. The survivor’s pension, for its part, has a particular operation and strict conditions that it is essential to know. What, for example, are the resources taken into account for its calculation? Is life insurance included?

The departure of a spouse not only leaves a great void, but can also undermine the balance of a household, whether daily or financial. To remedy these difficulties, the survivor’s pension helps to give financial stability to the surviving life partner, who can take the time to grieve without being impacted by a disruption of resources. To qualify, several conditions are required and must be met.

The survivor’s pension therefore corresponds to 54% of the rights that the deceased spouse received. To make your request, you must be at least 55 years old at the time of your request and must have been married to the missing person. In the case of a divorce and a remarriage, there may be a partition with the new spouse of the deceased person. If you are only a PACS or cohabiting partner, you will not be able to receive this survivor’s pension.

Means conditions are fixed for the survivor’s pension and they must be respected in order to be able to obtain its payment. In the list of resources taken into account for the opening of the right, the professional income of the surviving spouse, unemployment benefits, basic personal pensions and invalidity pensions, supplementary pensions or income from movable personal property are required .

However, it is not necessary to provide the resources of income from activity or replacement of the deceased spouse, the value of the personal home, family benefits, income from movable or immovable property resulting from a liquidation of the community assets or survivors’ pensions from mandatory supplementary schemes.

As Stéphane Absolu, associate director at Pyxis Conseil, mentions to Capital, “under the general scheme, the survivor’s pension is subject to means testing”. In the case of life insurance, it is necessary to include “an annual fictitious income equal to 3% of the market value of investments or real estate”.

Stéphane Absolu clarifies this last obligation by explaining that it is only contracts represented by specific property that must be expressed. Thus, “those fed by common funds do not have to be declared and taken into account for the survivor’s pension”.