Frequently asked questions when an AOW pensioner dies

If you are the partner of the deceased, a death grant will be paid to you automatically. You do not have to do anything. The amount of the death grant is equal to 1 month’s AOW pension and holiday allowance.

If we have paid too much in AOW pension, we will deduct the overpaid amount from the death grant.

If there is no surviving partner, the death grant can be paid to the deceased’s children under 18. If there are no children under 18, the death grant can be paid to the person who shared a household with the deceased.

We stop paying AOW pension on the day after the date of death. If AOW pension has already been paid for the full month, we may have paid too much. If this is the case, we deduct the overpaid amount from the holiday allowance that is still owing.

There are 2 possibilities:

• the deceased was living with someone the SVB regards as a ‘partner’: in that case, the overpayment is deducted from the death grant and the remaining amount is paid to the partner
• the deceased was living alone: in that case, the deceased’s relatives may be required to repay a certain amount to us

The deceased will have built up holiday allowance from the previous May until the date of death. We pay this holiday allowance into the deceased’s bank account. If we have paid too much AOW pension, we deduct the overpaid amount before we pay the holiday allowance.

The last annual statement is sent with our letter about the deceased’s AOW pension to the last address we had for the deceased.

It is important to keep the annual statement. Annual statements cannot be sent digitally. 

It is not possible to log in to the My SVB account of a deceased person to view their details.

No, not if someone dies in the Netherlands. But you will need to inform the municipality (gemeente) where the death occurred. The gemeente will report the death to us.

Please note that you will need to report the death to us if it occurred outside the Netherlands, for example during a holiday. You should report the death to us within 4 weeks, but preferably as soon as possible so that we can stop the pension payments. We will then send a letter to the surviving partner or relatives to inform them of the consequences for the deceased’s AOW pension.

If the deceased lived outside the Netherlands, you should report the death to us within 6 weeks, but preferably as soon as possible so that we can stop the pension payments. 

We will send a letter to the surviving partner or relatives to inform them of the consequences for the deceased’s AOW pension.

There are many things to arrange when someone dies, for example the funeral, the deceased’s estate or financial affairs. On the Dutch government website, you can get a list of some of the things you will need to do. To do so, you will need to answer a few questions (available in Dutch only).