What is Bereavement Support Payment and who can claim it?

Full answer

Bereavement Support Payment replaced older bereavement benefits, providing time-limited financial support to help a surviving spouse or civil partner adjust financially in the period following their partner's death. **Core eligibility conditions** You can generally claim if your husband, wife, or civil partner died, you were under State Pension age when they died, you were living in the UK (or a country that counts for this purpose), and your late partner had paid sufficient National Insurance contributions (or died as a result of their job, which can waive the contribution condition) -- unmarried partners, however long the relationship or however many children involved, generally do not qualify for Bereavement Support Payment, since it is specifically tied to marriage or civil partnership status. **The two payment rates** There are two rates: a higher rate for claimants with dependent children (or who are pregnant), and a lower rate for those without dependent children -- both rates include an initial lump sum payment followed by up to 18 monthly payments, with the higher rate paying a larger lump sum and larger monthly amounts than the lower rate. **Time limit to claim** You generally need to claim within 3 months of your partner's death to receive the full 18 months of payments -- claiming later than this reduces the number of months you can receive Bereavement Support Payment for (since payments are linked to the original date of death, not the claim date), down to a final cut-off point beyond which no claim can be made at all, so claiming promptly matters even amid the difficulty of a recent bereavement. **Worked example** A widowed parent with two dependent children claims Bereavement Support Payment within a few weeks of their spouse's death, having confirmed their late spouse had a sufficient NI record. They receive the higher-rate lump sum immediately, followed by 18 monthly payments at the higher rate, providing a period of financial support while they adjust to their changed circumstances -- had they delayed claiming by, say, a year, they would have received correspondingly fewer of the 18 available monthly payments. **Tax-free and does not affect most other benefits directly, but interacts with means-testing** Bereavement Support Payment itself is tax-free, but because it counts as capital/savings once received (particularly the lump sum, if not spent), it can affect entitlement to OTHER means-tested benefits (such as Universal Credit) if it pushes your savings above the relevant capital limits, so claimants relying on both should plan around this interaction. **Practical tip** Claim Bereavement Support Payment as soon as reasonably possible after a partner's death, since delaying reduces the total number of monthly payments received, and check how any lump sum received might affect your entitlement to other means-tested benefits if you are also claiming those.

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