Throughout this guidance the term "unmarried" should be understood to mean "neither married nor in a civil partnership".
A member of the classic section of the scheme who is unmarried at the time of retiring in the PCSPS may be entitled to a refund of the WPS contributions made in respect of the period of time that the member had been unmarried.
This refund should be reduced to reflect the possibility that the member may marry in retirement and therefore bring into payment the spouse pension for which contributions have been refunded.
The net payment made to the member is calculated as the refund of WPS contributions minus the premium.
The premium should be calculated as:
Premium = Widow(er)'s pension x Factor
Where:
Widow(er)'s pension is the current value of the post-retirement widow's or widower's pension that would be paid to a widow or widower of the member if the member were married and died immediately after the retirement date (ignoring any short-term pensions and guarantees).
Factor is the factor in Table P1WPS_NH1 or P1WPS_IH1 (Table 1-811 or 1-812 in the consolidated factors workbook).
The factor to use will depend on the member's age (last birthday) at retirement. Where the member retires before Normal Pension Age (NPA), the factor to use will depend on whether they retired on normal or ill health grounds (Table P1WPS_NH1 or P1WPS_IH1); where the member retires on or after NPA, the factor to use is taken from table P1WPS_NH1.
Where the premium exceeds the refund of WPS contributions, the premium should be set equal to the refund of WPS contributions (i.e. the net payment to the member would be zero and should not be negative).
