On October 23, the Federal Council announced that it would be changing how widows and widowers receive pensions. While the new rules open up the benefit to couples who are not married, women widows would no longer receive a pension for life.

Widows' and widowers' pensions in Switzerland

Under the current rules, widows and widowers in Switzerland are able to claim a survivors' pension under certain criteria. Women claimants are entitled to a widows' pension if they have a dependant child (or dependant adult up to age 25 who is still in education) at the time of being widowed, or if they are older than 45 and have been married to their partner for at least five years before they passed away.

Widowed men are also entitled to a widowers' pension if they have a minor or dependent child when their spouse passes away. Both widows and widowers have a more limited right to claim a survivors' pension if they are divorced, subject to stricter time limits.

How much are Swiss widows' and widowers' pensions?

The windows' and widowers' pension is based on how long the deceased partner had paid into the first pillar pension system (AHV), and how much they earned as a salary when they were working. Widows and widowers are also entitled to 60 percent of their deceased spouse’s pillar two (BVG) pension. In total, widows' pensions are typically between 956 and 1.912 francs a month.

For men, the widowers' pension ends if they remarry, or when the child turns 18 or 25 if they have not completed their education. Provided they don’t re-marry, the survivors' pension for women lasts for life.

How will Swiss pension reforms affect widows and widowers?

In a statement, the Federal Council argued that this system does not reflect modern families in Switzerland and is still based on the "traditional division of roles between men and women." Therefore, they have moved to radically reform how widows' and widowers' pensions will work in the future.

First, the government will extend the right to a widows' and widowers' pension to all people “regardless of [the] marital status and gender” of the couple. They argued that this would help “adapt the system to social developments” - Federal Statistical Office (FSO) data shows that as of 2023, only 50,7 percent of women and 45,5 percent of men were married before the age of 50, despite 75,6 percent of those over 18 being in a relationship.

However, the rules will also scrap a woman's right to a lifelong first-pillar pension pension (AHV) after the passing of their spouse. Instead, the widow's pension will only be paid out if the couple had a dependent child when the partner passed, and it will only last until the child reaches the age of 25 years old.

This would make the rules for women the same as they are for men. Occupational second-pillar pensions will remain largely unchanged.

Widows and widowers over 58 years old, whose spouses’ passing puts them at serious risk of poverty, will receive “supplementary benefits” through the conventional social security system according to the Federal Council. The new rules will apply to all those aged 55 and over when the new rules come into force. Women who already receive a life pension will continue to receive the benefit until they die or remarry.

Changes to survivors' pension a response to ECHR, council assures

The Federal Council reasoned that the changes would “eliminate the unequal treatment of men and women in the AHV.” The change is also a response to international pressure: in 2022, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the current imbalance in Swiss survivors' pensions amounted to gender inequality, demanding that the current rules be adjusted.

As Switzerland plans widespread austerity measures, the Federal Council added that the change would help cut pension spending by around 350 million francs by 2030 if it is implemented in 2026.

Scrapping lifelong widows' pensions met with dismay among SP

However, the change was met with dismay among some women’s groups, with Social Democratic Women (SP) writing in a statement that the government had “turned an equality bill into a cutback bill.” They argued that the government should have made the systems equal by extending lifelong pensions to men, rather than scrapping them for women.

While the law was designed to move away from sexist gender roles, data suggests that women’s pensions remain dramatically lower than men’s. The latest data from the FSO suggests that as of 2022, the average pension of a woman in Switzerland stood at 36.433 francs a year, compared 52.672 francs for men - a pension gap of 30,8 percent. This gap has only narrowed slightly since 2014.

With many women still reliant on their partner's salary, SP Women argued that the change would lead to financial hardship among widows.

"The Federal Council never tires of stressing that federal finances are under pressure. But when it comes to allocating huge sums of money to the army or tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations, they don't bat an eyelid," noted SP National Councillor Samira Marti. She concluded that her party would be moving to block this “social policy clear-cutting” when it is debated in parliament in the coming months.