Widow B Pension (WidB) 099-10000000

This file is for historical assessments/information only.

This document outlines the eligibility criteria for WidB, and lists supplementary payments a customer may have been eligible for. WidB:

• is a closed payment, there are no new grants since 20 March 1997
• was an income support payment available to certain older widows
• who did not qualify for Parenting Payment (PP)
• had limited means of support, and lost the financial support of their partner
• ceased on 20 March 2020 and all WidB customers were transferred to Age Pension

Date limitation

WidB ceased on 20 March 2020. There have been no new grants of WidB since 20 March 1997. WidB customers remained eligible to receive that payment until they were disqualified from receiving it, or they elected to transfer to Age Pension.

The pensions income and assets tests applied to WidB. For more information about assessing employment income, see Work Bonus and balance for pensioners of age pension age and Employment income nil rate period.

To qualify for WidB, a customer needed to meet certain criteria relating to their relationship status, age and residence, or have previously been in receipt of certain other pensions at certain dates. A customer with a dependent child needed to test her eligibility for PP. If the claim for PP was rejected, WidB should subsequently have been claimed.

It was also possible for some customers to qualify for WidB under the terms of an international agreement, in which case the requirement to be an Australian resident did not apply.

Providing they met the relevant qualification criteria, customers receiving WidB may have also got supplementary assistance such as:

• Rent Assistance (RA)
• Pension Supplement
• Crisis Payment (CrP)
• Education Entry Payment (EdEP)
• Remote Area Allowance (RAA)
• Pensioner Concession Card (PCC)
• Pensioner Education Supplement (PES)