in countries where contributory pension coverage is low and stratified lowincome women are often excluded twice they lack both a retirement pension benefit of their own for performing unpaid or informal work over their lifetimes and a derived pension from their husbands for being married to or cohabiting with an informal worker as a result in countries with incomplete and stratified coverage derived benefits may end up increasing the total transfer that the state makes to formally employed often higher income families benefits have been cut or significantly reduced or they are being phased out their duration restricted or eligibility subjected to a means test saraceno and keck countries that have adopted ndc pension systems have continued to cover widows with a separate payg defined benefit scheme or have eliminated survivor benefits altogether james in sweden the widow s pension was abolished in for women born in or later and replaced by a readjustment benefit to last only one year for women and men under the age of