Eligiblity to claim family pension from railway by a legalt separated wife

It is considered as live in relationship and claim benifits on that .

Dear Querist,

Family Pension is granted to the family of a Govt. servant in the event of his death while in service and also after retirement provided he was on the date of death in receipt of a pension or compassionate allowance.

In this case, as the husband and wife were divorced and didn’t remarry each other before the death of the husband leading to no status to the wife as a widow who is considered as category-1 people under getting pensions. She will be entitled as a divorced wife only and a divorced wife loses the status of a legally wedded wife and as such is not entitled to the award of family pension. However, the eligible child/children from a divorced wife shall be entitled to the share of family pension which the mother would have received at the time of death of her husband had she not been divorced under ccs(pension) rules, 1972.

Regards,

Palak