LRD guides and handbook April 2016

State benefits and tax credits 2016

Chapter 7

7. Help if your husband, wife or civil partner dies


[ch 7: page 88]

If your husband, wife or civil partner dies, you may be entitled to:


• Bereavement Payment (a one-off, tax-free, lump-sum payment of £2,000);


• Bereavement Allowance (if you have no dependent children); 


• Widowed Parent’s Allowance (if you have dependent children);


• some inherited State Earnings-Related or Additional Pension; and


• Funeral Payments.


You cannot get bereavement benefits if you: 


• are divorced;


• remarry or live with someone as a couple without being legally married or in a civil partnership; or 


• are in prison or being held in legal custody.