Survivors’ Pension is one of the social insurance allocation provided to insured in the Turkish Social Security Regime. Survivors’ Pension is being provided by the Social Security Institution of Turkey in line with the provisions of the Social Insurance and General Healthcare Insurance Act No. 5510.
What are the Eligibility Conditions for Survivors’ Pension?
In order to provide survivors’ pension to the beneficiaries of the insured who died after the effective date of the Act No. 5510 the following conditions are required to be met for the insured:
- To have at least 1800 days of disability, old-age and survivors insurance premiums have been declared, or,
- For insured within the status of 4/1-(a) social insurance status, to be insured for at least 5 years, excluding any borrowing periods, and having a total of 900 days of disability, old-age and death insurance premiums have been declared.
Given that the above conditions are being met the survivors’ pension is being granted to the beneficiary of the deceased.
Addition to this, survivors’ pension will be granted to the beneficiaries of the insured who die while in the situation specified below, if they make a written request to the Social Security Institution:
- If someone dies while receiving disability, duty disability or old-age pension, or are entitled to disability, duty disability or old-age pension but the procedures have not been completed yet,
- If someone dies while his/her current disability, duty disability or old-age pension has been terminated due to starting to work as an insured person.
In order to be granted a survivors’ pension, it is only necessary to have been insured for at least 5 years, excluding any borrowing periods foreseen for 4/1-(a) insured individuals, and to have declared a total of 900 days of disability, old-age and survivors’ insurance premiums. All borrowings made by both the deceased insured and the beneficiaries are not taken into account in the formation of these conditions.
However, all periods owed to the insured who died before 1/10/2008 are taken into account in the 900-day calculation.
In addition, in order for a survivors’ pension to be granted to the beneficiaries of insurance holders who work on their own behalf (in-line with the subparagraph (b) of the first paragraph of the Article 4 of the Act No. 5510), all premiums and premium-related debts, including the general health insurance premium of the deceased insured, must be paid in-full.
Who is entitled to Survivors’ Pension?
Survivors’ pension is being granted to the following beneficiaries of the deceased:
- To his/her wife/husband
- To his/her children
- To his/her parents
In order for a spouse to receive a pension, the deceased insured must have a legal marriage bond with his or her spouse on the date of death.
