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Money, tax and benefits

Money, tax and benefits

Bereavement Payment

If your husband, wife or civil partner has died you may be able to get Bereavement Payment, a one-off, lump-sum payment of £2,000 that's tax-free.

Who is eligible?

You may be able to claim Bereavement Payment if your husband, wife or civil partner had paid their National Insurance contributions (NICs) or their death was caused by their job and either:

  • you were under State Pension age (60 for women and 65 for men) when they died

or

  • your husband, wife or civil partner was not entitled to Category A state Retirement Benefit when they died.

National Insurance contributions and Bereavement Payment

When you fill in the claim form you'll be asked to give your late husband, wife or civil partner's National Insurance number and details of their recent employment history.

This will allow the office that deals with your claim to look into their National Insurance record and to work out if you qualify for Bereavement Payment.

Who isn't eligible?

You can't get Bereavement Payment if any of the following apply:

  • you were divorced from your late husband or wife or the civil partnership had dissolved at the time of the civil partner's death
  • you're living with another person as husband, wife or civil partner
  • you're in prison

How much do you get?

The £2,000 payment is a one-off tax-free lump sum.

How it's paid

Bereavement Payment is paid directly into your bank, building society, Post Office® or National Savings account that accepts Direct Payment.

Effect on other benefits

The one-off Bereavement Payment does not generally affect your entitlement to other benefits. But your savings and Bereavement Payment may reduce the amount of means-tested benefits you get like:

  • Income support
  • income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
  • Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit

How to apply

You can order a Bereavement Benefits pack over the telephone from your nearest Jobcentre Plus or social security office. The pack has help notes on how to complete the claim form.

Download a claim form to print off and fill in

Or you can download claim form BB1 from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) website.

Once you've completed the form, send it to your nearest Jobcentre Plus or social security office as soon as possible.

Claims can only be backdated three months for  Bereavement Allowance and Widowed Parent's Allowance and are dated when the office gets them, so if you delay you may lose benefit. The time limit for claiming Bereavement Payment has been extended to 12 months.

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