Thank you! But perhaps I've not written my question effectively...
Here's the situation: woman is a widow and she already receives her entitled widow's pension and her children get the orphan's pension. No problem there.
According to the guidelines of said pension, if this Widow begins a new marriage, she loses the Widow's pension (though her children continue to receive the orphan's pension).
If this new marriage dissolves within 10 years, she can reapply for that first widow's pension again. And Bob's your Uncle.
BUT: what is unclear is what if the widow doesn't marry again but is living with a new partner? I'm wondering if the act of living together is also considered to be a "marriage" as such and is therefore subject to the same guidelines as with legal marriage, i.e. she must inform the authorities that she's co-habitating and thereby lose her Widow's pension.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
I'll check with the proper agencies today but sometimes the phone wait takes really long.
Only marrying is marrying. If you do not marry or remary you are not married. A couple living together w/o marrying is called Konkubinat . Until 1975 the Konkubinat was forbidden by law in Canton of Zurich (till 1995 in Canton Valais), so were the Zwinglians and the Catholics.
There are many reason to not mary:
- Lower tax if both have an income.
- Higher AHV pension
- Not losing widow's pension
- Simplere process in case of a break up
- etc.
But there are some drawbacks:
- W/o a will the surving partner will get nothing.
- W/o a patient decree maybe no vistors right, but certainly no power of attorny.
- Less protection if only one party signs the flat lease
- No right do not to testify against your partner
- etc.
PS: The law is clear, you have to remarry or die to lose the widow's pension:
No, it’s quite clear cohabitees aren’t eligible. Only registered marriages or same sex partnerships qualify. She should inform the authorities that she’s co-habiting. Anything “informal”, i.e. not officially registered, doesn’t quality her for the pension.
“Cohabitees are not eligible for a widow’s or a widower’s pension from the AHV or from the accident insurance.
A number of pension funds offer cohabitees a limited surviving dependants’ pension on the death of a partner. Contact the deceased’s pension organisation (pension fund or occupational pension institution).”
I think we're getting posts crossed here. It sounds like we have a widow that is considering (or currently) co-habiting with someone, and does not want to lose her widow's pension from her late husband because of her new living situation.
Based on the links provided, she will be fine as long as she doesn't marry the person she's co-habiting with. However that also means she and her current partner will not be eligible for each others' pensions (as widow/widower) in the event one of them dies. Because they're not married.
Yes, and if she then shacks up with someone else and doesn’t marry him she’s cohabiting. It actually says to check with the deceased pension organisation to find out whether she might be eligible as some do provide a limited pension. But from the AHV or accident insurance no, not eligible. That’s my reading/understanding.
Yes but she won't lose the entitlement to the widow's pension that she already receives from her late husband's pension plan if she only shacks up with someone else.
If she were to then go on and marry this person then her previous pension would cease but she would then be entitled to a pension from the new husband if he were to die before her.
Whether she has any entitlement to a pension from the 'new man's' fund should he pop his clogs based on their 'cohabitation' status is a whole different question.
Thank you for the responses. Having just called the SVA/AHV, they also confirm it.
The widow and orphans can all keep the pensions they "earned" from the husband/father who's already died, as long as the widowed woman doesn't MARRY anyone else.
So this is a relief of course... I mean what if the second, unmarried relationship doesn't work out and she can't "go back" to that widow's pension?
The widow pension will be resumed from the first day of the next month when the marriage was disbanded (death, divorce, or for legal reasons ) and the new marriage was for less than ten full years.