8. Help if your husband, wife or civil partner dies
[ch 8: page 89]What’s new?
• From April 2017, a new single Bereavement Support Payment replaces Bereavement Payment, Bereavement Allowance and Widowed Parent’s Allowance. This marks a shift in focus from long- to short-term support, with payments limited to the 18-month period following the bereavement.
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.