social security - FOD Sociale Zekerheid

It could be that the surviving spouse was already entitled to a retirement pension. He or she maycombine this retirement pension with a survivor's pension, up to a maximum of 110% of thesurvivor's pension. However, if the survivor's pension is derived from an incomplete career, thecap is fixed as if the career were complete.Obviously, a survivor's pension is only reserved to spouses who were married on the dateof the decease. Still, divorced spouses can apply for an old-age pension on the basis of theprofessional activity that their former spouse exercised during the years of their marriage (thisrule does not apply to civil servants).There are also rules for minimum pensions, which resemble those for retirement pensions.If the deceased spouse was a permanently appointed civil servant, the survivor's pension iscalculated as follows: 60 % of the average salary of the 5 last years of service, multiplied by afraction of which the numerator is the number of months of credited services en the denominatorthe number of months between the 20th birthday and the decease, with a maximum of 480months.However, the survivor's pension is limited to 50% of the maximum salary applicable in the lastrank of the deceased spouse and on the basis of which the survivor's pension is calculated,multiplied by the above-mentioned fraction. Please note that the conditions are different whenthere was a previous marriage that ended in a divorce. The survivor's pension is suspended incase of a new marriage.It is not allowed to accumulate a public-sector survivor's pension with a benefit for primaryincapacity for work or an unemployment benefit granted under a Belgian or foreign legislation.The payment of the survivor's pension is then suspended during for calendar months in question.Accumulation with an invalidity benefit or a supplementary allowance in the context of aconventional early retirement pension (under Belgian legislation) is not allowed either.By way of derogation from this principle, accumulation is allowed for a limited period of 12months, whether continuous or split, over the entire duration of the pension, irrespective ofthe whether the replacement income was received for all the working days of the month. If,during these 12 months, the amount of the survivor's pension exceeds the amount of the incomeguarantee for the elderly, the survivor's pension is reduced to this amount.40