A widow's pension is a payment from the government of a country to a person whose

spouse A spouse is a significant other in a marriage. A female spouse is called a wife while a male spouse is called a husband. Married The legal status of a spouse, and the specific rights and obligations associated with that status, vary signific ...

has died. Generally, such payments are made to a

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

whose late spouse has fulfilled the country's requirements, including contribution, cohabitation, and length of marriage.

United States

During the Progressive Era, there was a proliferation of laws introducing widows' pensions (generally called "mothers' pensions) at the state level. At the federal level, the widow's pension was introduced in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

in 1930. It was not especially uncommon for young women in Arkansas to marry Confederate pensioners; in 1937 the state passed a law stating that women who married Civil War veterans would not be eligible for a widow's pension. The law was later changed in 1939 to state that widows born after 1870 were not eligible for pensions. In 1899, Congress approved a payment of $11,750 of widow's pension owed to Harriet Tubman.

United Kingdom

In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the Widow’s Pension was discontinued in 2001. A widow's pension can be paid to childless

s aged 45 or over, or to those whose husband died before September 4, 2001.http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/ssa/wi When it was offered, for a woman to qualify, her husband had to have paid 25 flat-rate contributions before April 6, 1975.

Israel

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in 2007, a

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

ruled that the female partner of a deceased

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

was entitled to a widow's pension.

New Zealand

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, a widow's pension was introduced in 1911 to help families with no other way of supporting themselves.

References

Pensions Widowhood Social security {{econ-term-stub