Widow’s and widower’s pension: small, large, and the one-year rule

Last checked against the official sources: 29 August 2026

The survivor’s pension is not one benefit but two: a small one capped at twenty-four months, and a large one without that cap, opened by three different routes. Ahead of both stands a condition that can end the claim at its root: a marriage that did not last a full year — unless it is shown that the purpose of the marriage was not to secure a pension. That condition, not the time limit, is what closes most files.

Small and large: twenty-four months apart

The small pension is the default. It goes to a survivor who has not remarried after the death of their insured spouse, provided the deceased fulfilled the general waiting period. But it is temporary: it exists for at most twenty-four calendar months after the end of the month in which the insured person died. Two years, and then it stops.

The large pension carries the same conditions and adds one gateway out of three — any one suffices:

1. Raising a child under 18. Their own child or the deceased spouse’s.
2. Having completed the age of 47. A purely age-based route.
3. Being reduced in earning capacity within the meaning of the pension statute.

The statute widens the notion of “child” significantly: it also counts stepchildren and foster children taken into the survivor’s household, and grandchildren and siblings taken into the household or predominantly maintained by them.

And there is an express humane extension: caring, in a shared household, for a child unable to support itself because of a physical, mental or psychological disability counts as raising even after the child turns 18. The route does not close on a birthday.

The one-year rule — and how it is rebutted

This is what ends most claims, and paragraph 2a puts it precisely: there is no entitlement to a widow’s or widower’s pension where the marriage did not last at least one year.

But the provision does not stop at the bar; it attaches an exception: “unless, in the special circumstances of the case, the assumption is not justified that the sole or predominant purpose of the marriage was to establish an entitlement to survivors’ provision.”

That wording repays close reading. The law creates a presumption that a short marriage was a “provision marriage” — and the presumption is rebuttable. Someone whose spouse died suddenly in an accident or from an abrupt illness months into a genuine marriage has circumstances that rebut it.

In practice the burden falls on the applicant: show when the intention to marry arose relative to the onset of illness, and what evidence exists that the relationship predated it and was settled. A sudden, unforeseeable death is the strongest rebuttal there is.

Two doors that close: pension splitting and remarriage

Pension splitting. Paragraph 2b is categorical: no entitlement to a survivor’s pension exists from the calendar month at the beginning of which pension splitting has been carried out. The award decision is revoked with effect from that date — and the usual protections for administrative decisions under §§ 24 and 48 of SGB X do not apply here.

Pension splitting between spouses and a survivor’s pension therefore cannot coexist. Choosing the split closes the other route.

Remarriage. Marrying again ends the entitlement — but paragraph 3 opens a way back: a survivor who has remarried is entitled to the small or large pension, on the remaining conditions, if the later marriage is dissolved or declared void. The statute calls it the “widow’s or widower’s pension after the penultimate spouse”.

The entitlement is therefore suspended rather than extinguished: it ends with the marriage and returns when that marriage does.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the small pension last?

At most twenty-four calendar months after the end of the month in which the insured person died.

How do I qualify for the large pension?

By one of three routes: raising a child of yours or the deceased’s under 18, having completed the age of 47, or being reduced in earning capacity.

Our marriage lasted under a year — is my claim gone?

The law presumes a provision marriage, but the presumption is rebuttable where the circumstances make it unjustified — a sudden, unforeseeable death being the clearest case.

Do grandchildren or stepchildren count?

Yes. Stepchildren and foster children taken into the household, and grandchildren and siblings taken into the household or predominantly maintained by you.

I remarried and then separated — does the pension return?

Yes. If the later marriage is dissolved or annulled the entitlement revives on the remaining conditions — what the statute calls the pension after the penultimate spouse.