Transferring a pension after death or between banks
This article keeps two matters apart, and they are not to be mixed: allocation of successors’ rights after death under Articles 25 and 28, and a change of the paying bank, which is an administrative step without an article that sets out its steps in the law. The substantive rights of successors — who is entitled and on what conditions — are on a deceased person’s pension.
The cutting of a share after allocation is on when a pension is stopped or cut.
Allocation after death in Article 25, and distribution in Article 28
Article 25, Second: if a civil servant or a pensioner dies, Iraqi successors who are entitled to the pension may ask for allocation of the pension rights the deceased had on the date of death. Allocation is a request made by an entitled successor, not an automatic continuation of payment in the deceased’s name. After death, the pension is no longer paid in the deceased’s name, and that person’s card or confirmation is not used as a basis for later payment in that name, as on the pensioner identity card and pension confirmation.
Article 25, First, deals with the death of a civil servant in service: the service is counted as fifteen years if it was less than that, and the added period is exempt from contributions. Article 25, Third: if a temporary employee dies in service or as a result of it, entitled successors are granted the minimum pension share set in this law. Those two rules determine what is allocated, and distribution then follows.
Article 28, First, distributes the pension to entitled successors on the death of a civil servant or a pensioner: eighty per cent if there is one entitled person; ninety per cent if there are two, shared equally between them; and one hundred per cent if there are three or more, shared equally among them. Article 28, Second: the shares are redistributed among those who remain entitled, in accordance with the First clause, when any person’s share is cut for any reason. The cutting of a wife’s, daughter’s or sister’s share on marriage or appointment under Article 27 brings this redistribution into play, and the total of the shares is not left as it was.
Article 28, Third: if a successor is already a pensioner for his or her own service, that person may choose, once only, to keep the pension or to take the larger pension share due under the First clause. Article 28, Fourth: an entitled person may not receive more than one pension share, and may choose, once only, the larger share, with an exception for a minor, or a person treated as a minor, who is entitled to a share for both deceased parents, and for a student who remains in study under the conditions of Article 26, Second. This once-only choice is a written limit, and it is read together with the rule against combining pensions after the 2019 amendment where that rule applies.
Changing bank or the paying body
Moving payment of the pension from one bank to another, or from one branch to another, is a question many pensioners ask. The Unified Pension Law has no article on the steps of this transfer, does not name a particular bank, and does not draw an electronic channel for it. The requests the National Pension Authority (هيأة التقاعد الوطنية) organises for a change of account or of paying body are read from its instructions in force at the time of the request, including any channel the Authority then makes available.
The right of the pensioner or of the entitled person remains, under the assessment or allocation decision, even if a change of account is delayed. Article 33, First: pension rights do not lapse by prescription for so long as the pensioner, or an entitled person who has not lost the conditions of entitlement, is alive. Arrival of the sum in a particular account does, in practice, depend on the payment particulars held by the Authority and the bank, so the account is updated from the source of the decision, not from a request made to the bank alone.
If allocation after death is refused, or there is a dispute about the shares under Article 28, or about redistribution after a share is cut, the objection is before the Pensioners’ Cases Audit Council within ninety days of actual or constructive notification of the Authority’s decision, then an appeal against the Council’s decision before the Federal Court of Cassation within sixty days of notification, under Article 30. If the dispute is confined to carrying out instructions on a change of account, without a substantive decision on entitlement, it is taken up with the Authority from those instructions, and it may become connected with a decision if payment is stopped without a basis.
A request for allocation, and the shares on distribution, are read from Articles 25 and 28 and from the Authority’s decision. If one entitled person dies after allocation, or a share is cut for any reason, that share is redistributed among those who remain, under Article 28, Second, for so long as they retain the conditions of entitlement in Articles 26 and 27. A dispute about a stop of payment or a refusal of an administrative transfer is taken up with the basis of the decision or with the instructions in force, according to the nature of the dispute.
| Issue | Basis or source |
|---|---|
| A request to allocate the deceased’s rights | Article 25, Second |
| Distribution of the pension to successors: 80%, 90% and 100% | Article 28, First |
| Redistribution when a share is cut | Article 28, Second, together with Article 27 on marriage or appointment |
| A successor who is already a pensioner choosing, once only, between that pension and the larger share | Article 28, Third |
| A change of bank or of account | The National Pension Authority’s instructions in force, not an article that sets out the steps |
Legal basis and sources
Frequently asked questions
Does the pension move automatically to the heirs on death?
Article 25, Second, makes allocation rest on a request by Iraqi successors who are entitled. Payment does not continue automatically in the deceased’s name.
If one entitled person’s share is cut, what happens to the others’ shares?
Article 28, Second, redistributes the shares among those who remain entitled, according to the rates in the First clause.
How do I change the bank into which the pension is paid?
The law does not set out the steps of this change. The request is read from the National Pension Authority’s instructions in force at the time it is filed.