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


Until April 2017, if someone’s husband, wife or civil partner died, they may have been entitled to:


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


• Bereavement Allowance (for those with no dependent children); 


• Widowed Parent’s Allowance (for those with dependent children);


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


• Funeral Payments.


The benefits were not available for people who: 


• were divorced;


• remarried, or lived with someone as a couple without being legally married, or in a civil partnership; or 


• were in prison or being held in legal custody.