Bereavement support payments

Losing a loved one is a devastating blow emotionally, and it can also be an incredibly difficult time financially. Bereavement benefits are cash payments that are designed to help reduce the financial impact of losing a partner. They are available UK wide. 

• A recent law change means 10,000s are newly eligible for help. Until recently, bereavement payments were only available if you were were married or in a civil partnership. However, a landmark law change in February 2023 means that cohabiting parents who are bereaved are also now eligible for help. And, for a limited time, this can be claimed for bereavements dating back to 2001 – but you need to apply by 8 February 2024.
  
  
• Having (or expecting) children dictates what help you can get – as the tables below show. In this context, having children means you must be entitled to (though not necessarily claiming payment of) Child Benefit. In other words, you must have at least one child under the age of 16, or under 20 if they are in full-time study or approved training. If you're expecting a child when your partner dies, you can also make a claim for help. 
  

Widowed parent's allowance was replaced by bereavement support payment on 6 April 2017, but you can still make a retrospective claim if your partner died before then (and after 8 April 2001), and you meet these other four qualifying criteria:

1. Relationship status – When they died, you and your partner need to have been married, in a registered civil partnership, or living together as though you were married. You don't qualify if you were divorced at the time of the death, or if you have since remarried, formed a new civil partnership, or begun co-habiting living with another partner.
   
   
2. Age – When your partner died, you need to have been under state pension age. Your state pension age depends on the year you were born – check yours on Gov.uk. If you were living together but unmarried and not in a civil partnership, you must also have been eligible (ie under state pension age) on 30 August 2018, this is the date of the Supreme Court ruling.
    
3. Work history – Your partner paid national insurance contributions, or they died because of an accident at work or a disease caused by work.
   
   
4. Child Benefit – When your partner died, you need to have been either entitled to Child Benefit for at least one child or expecting a child who was subsequently born. Crucially, you DON'T need to have been receiving Child Benefit payments, so you can still qualify if your income was too high to claim. See how does the date of the ruling affect my eligibility?. 
   
   IMPORTANT: To claim a backdated payment, you also need to have still been eligible for Child Benefit on or after 30 August 2018, meaning your youngest child needs to have been born:
   
   - After 30 August 1998 if they continued full-time education until 20 years old.
   - After 30 August 2000 if they left full-time education at 18 years old.
   - After 30 August 2002 if they left full-time education at 16 years old.
   
   We've written to the Government asking it to make this requirement clearer (see our News story).

How much is backdated widowed parent's allowance worth?

How much you'll get depends on how much your partner paid in national insurance contributions. But the maximum amount of widowed parent's allowance you can get is £139.10/week (£7,233/year).

You'll get the allowance for as long as you continue to be entitled to Child Benefit after 30 August 2018, so if your child was young (or not yet born) when your partner died, your backdated claim could be worth £10,000s.