Widower no longer receives a pension

Different provisions for widowhood and widowhood pensions, as well as the legal retirement age, are examples of gender-specific regulations in the AHV.

Christian Beutler / Keystone

A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) highlights the different treatment of women and men when it comes to AHV survivors’ pensions in Switzerland. The court ruled Tuesday on a widower whose widower’s pension expired after his youngest daughter came of age. If he had been a woman, the pension would not have been canceled. The man had raised his two daughters only after the accidental death of his wife. When the woman died, the children were four and one and three-quarters old. The federal court had dismissed a complaint from the widower in May 2012.

Avoid financial difficulties

Survivor pensions are designed to avoid financial hardship when a spouse or parent dies. For men, the regulation is quite simple: married or divorced men whose wife has passed away receive a widow’s pension in Switzerland as long as they have children under the age of 18.

For women, on the other hand, the regulations are much broader, as an AHV / IV brochure explains. The provisions for married and divorced women of the deceased are different. Married women whose spouse dies receive a widow’s pension if

• they have one or more children when they are widowed. Your age is irrelevant. According to the AHV / IV, children of the deceased spouse who live in the same household and who now receive an orphan’s pension as a result of their death are considered children. The same applies to adopted children who were cared for by the spouse until the death of the husband, provided they are subsequently adopted;
• If they are 45 years old at the time of the death of their spouse and have been married for at least five years. If the woman has been married several times, the years of marriage are added.

For divorced women whose former spouse passes away, different rules apply. You are entitled to a widow’s pension if

• There are children and the divorce has lasted at least ten years;
• if the woman was over 45 years of age at the time of the divorce and the divorce had lasted at least ten years;
• if the minor child turns 18 after the woman has turned 45.

If none of these requirements are met, the woman is entitled to a widow’s pension until the minor child reaches the age of 18, as explained in more detail in the information sheet.

“No longer valid in light of current conditions”

In its ruling, the ECHR held that the assumption that the husband provides financially for his wife is no longer valid in light of the current circumstances. Consequently, the different treatment of widows and widowers can no longer be justified.

“In the Swiss old-age provision there are several regulations in which specific gender differences are established,” says Florian Schubiger of the financial advisory firm Vermögenspartner. By way of example, it cites the various provisions relating to widowhood and widowhood pensions, as well as the legal age of retirement. This is 64 years for women and 65 years for men. Basically it makes sense to think about settings here. The problem is generally financing, says Schubiger. Aligning provisions for widow’s pensions to those for AHV’s widow’s pensions could be expensive.

However, it can be seen from counseling practice that widow’s pensions are much more common than widows’ pensions, says the investment advisor. This is mainly due to the longer average life expectancy of women compared to men. In 2019, women in Switzerland at the age of 50 had an average remaining life expectancy of 36.5 years, for men this value was 33.3 years. At age 65, the remaining life expectancy for women was 22.7 years, while for men it was 20 years.