The death of a partner, close friend or relative is very difficult. If you’re below State Pension age, the amount of help you can claim depends on your family circumstances, such as whether you are still bringing up children. Bereavement benefits have been extended to include parents or carer’s who were living together.
What’s in this guide
- Bereavement Support Payment
- How much is Bereavement Support Payment?
- How do I claim Bereavement Support Payment?
- How to claim benefits if you’re on a low income
- Funeral Expenses Payment
- How your bereavement benefits affect other benefits
- Claiming backdated bereavement benefits if you were living together
Bereavement Support Payment
Bereavement Support Payment is the main benefit available to you if your partner has died. It has replaced the following benefits:
- Bereavement Allowance
- Widowed Parent’s Allowance, and
- Bereavement Payment.
Am I eligible?
When your partner died, you must have been:
living in the UK or a country that pays bereavement benefitsOpens in a new window
Your partner must have either:
paid National Insurance contributionsOpens in a new window for at least 25 weeks in one tax year since 6 April 1975
- died because of an accident at work or a disease caused by work
Find out more about eligibility on GOV.UKOpens in a new window
Because of a recent law change, you could be owed bereavement benefits if you were living with your partner and had dependent children with them when they died. Find out more in the Claiming backdated bereavement benefits if you were living together section of this article. You have until 9 February 2024 to make a backdated claim
The benefit is paid to you at one of two rates, depending on whether you’re responsible for children.
Bereavement Support Payment is only paid for 18 months after the date your spouse or civil partner died. So it’s important you claim as soon as possible to avoid losing money.
Marriage Allowance
If you and your spouse or civil partner qualified to claim Marriage Allowance, but didn’t claim before they died, you can now claim up to four years’ worth of backdated missed payments.
Find out more in our guide Marriage and Married Couple’s Allowance
How much is Bereavement Support Payment?
Bereavement Support Payment is paid at either a higher rate or standard rate:
Higher rate
Paid to pregnant women or if you’re entitled to Child Benefit. In 2023/24 you’ll get:
- a monthly payment of £350 for 18 months following the death
- a one-off payment of £3,500 during the first month.
Standard rate
For everyone else. In 2023/24 you’ll get:
- a monthly payment of £100 for 18 months
- a one-off payment of £2,500 during the first month.
You might also qualify to claim other low income benefits to top up your income, such as tax credits, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction or Universal Credit.
You can claim Bereavement Support Payment online or by phone.
How do I claim Bereavement Support Payment?
You can claim from the date the person died.
Claims for Bereavement Support Payment can only be backdated by three months, so make sure you make your claim as soon as you’re able to or you might lose some of your payments.
Call the Bereavement Service helpline or pick up a form at your local JobCentre Plus.
Bereavement Service helpline
To find out about Bereavement Support Payment, call the helpline on 0800 151 2012, or 0800 731 0453 for a Welsh speaking service.
Textphone: 0800 731 0464
Welsh language: 0800 731 0456
Find out more, including call charges at GOV.UK (Opens in a new window)
How to claim benefits if you’re on a low income
Top tip
If you’re facing a drop in income after your partner dies, you might be able to claim a Universal Credit. This will top up your income and help with things like housing costs or bringing up children.
Some benefits are means-tested. This means any savings or income you have will affect whether you’re entitled to benefit payments.
This includes an inheritance taking your savings over the £16,000 threshold.
Use our Benefits Calculator
If you’re living on a low income or have had an income shock, use our Benefits Calculator to quickly find out what you could be entitled to
Tell Us Once
If you live in England, Scotland or Wales, you can contact the Tell Us Once service to cancel the deceased’s benefits and entitlements.
The Tell Us Once service can also inform the DVLA, HMRC, Passport Office and local council for you. And they can check if you qualify for help with funeral costs or other benefits.
For more help contacting other organisations such as banks and insurance companies see our guide What to do when someone diesOpens in a new window
Try to report the death as soon as you can to the Department for Work and PensionsOpens in a new window
This will help you get the benefits you’re entitled to as quickly as possible.
You might also need to notify insurers and creditors
Funeral Expenses Payment
What is Funeral Expenses Payment?
If you’re on a low income and struggling to pay for a funeral for your partner, close friend or relative, you can apply for a Funeral Expenses Payment.
If the person who died left money, you’ll usually need to pay back any amount you received through the Funeral Payments scheme.
How much you’ll get
The amount you get depends on your circumstances and your relationship with the person who died. But it might be up to £1,000 towards funeral expenses, plus payments to go towards the costs of things such as burial or cremation fees.
Find out more about eligibility and how to apply for a Funeral Expenses Payment in our guide Help paying for a funeral
How your bereavement benefits affect other benefits
If you are getting Bereavement Support Payment, it won’t affect your other benefits for a year.
After then, the income you get from it will be taken into account for means-tested benefits. These include:
- Tax Credits
- Universal Credit
- Income Support
- Incapacity Benefit
- Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Carer’s Allowance
- Employment and Support Allowance.
The lump sum you get as part of Bereavement Support Payment might count as savings when your entitlement to some means-tested benefits is worked out.
This will only be if you have any of the lump sum left over after 12 months that takes you over the savings limit of £6,000 for means-tested benefits.
This means you might get less of any of these benefits you might be getting:
- Income Support
- Housing Benefit
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Universal Credit.
Claiming backdated bereavement benefits if you were living together
The law changed on 9 February 2023, and now parents and carers who aren’t married or in a civil partnership, but who live together and have dependent children can make new claims for Bereavement Support Payment if their partner dies.
However, if you’re already bereaved and you were living with your partner before they died, you can make a backdated claim for bereavement benefits if you were eligible to do so on or after 30 August 2018.
You’re eligible for bereavement benefits if you were married, cohabiting or in a civil partnership when your partner died, and were pregnant or caring for children who were either under 18 or over 18 and in full time non-advanced education. Non-advanced education includes school, college, or approved training, but not university.
Which benefit you claim depends on when your partner died.
- If your partner died on or after 6 April 2017, you can make a claim for Bereavement Support Payment.
- If your partner died before 6 April 2017 you may be able to make a claim for Widowed Parent’s Allowance instead.
- You will have until 8 February 2024 to make a claim.
If you’re getting other means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit and are entitled to a lump sum back payment, it won’t count towards the savings limits that affect how much benefit you’re entitled to for 52 weeks.
You can claim Widowed Parent’s Allowance if your cohabiting partner died before 6 April 2017 by phone or with a postal form available on the GOV.UK siteOpens in a new window
If your partner died on 6 April 2017 or later you can claim Bereavement Support Payment online, by phone or with a postal formOpens in a new window
