Bereavement benefits

This content applies to England only.

Housing laws vary between England and Scotland. Get advice relating to Scotland

If you need help following a bereavement there are a number of different benefits you may be entitled to. These are examined in this section.

For more information about legal and other issues relating to your home that may affect you after the death of a loved one, see our section on what happens when someone dies.

Widowed parent’s allowance

If you are a parent with dependent children or you are responsible for a young person aged between 16 and 20 and your partner has died, you may be entitled to widowed parent’s allowance. You may also be eligible if you are expecting your late partner's baby.

However, you will not be able to claim if you were divorced from the partner who died, or your civil partnership has been dissolved.

Widowed parent’s allowance stops when you no longer have a dependent child. If this is within 52 weeks of your husband, wife or civil partner dying, you may be entitled to bereavement allowance (see below).

For more information about widowed parent's allowance, see the Directgov website.

Bereavement allowance

If you are widowed, you may be entitled to bereavement allowance. This is normally paid for up to 52 weeks from the death of your husband, wife or civil partner.

You will be entitled to bereavement allowance if:

you were 45 years or over when your partner died
you are not bringing up any children (if you are, you may be entitled to widowed parent’s allowance instead)
you are under the state pension age
your partner died as a result of an industrial incident or disease.

You will not be entitled to bereavement allowance if:

you were divorced, or your civil partnership was dissolved at the date your partner died
you are living with another person (as if you are married to them, or you are in a civil partnership with that person)
you are in prison.

For more information about claiming bereavement allowance, see the Directgov website.

Bereavement payments

In addition to bereavement allowance and widowed parent’s allowance, you may be entitled to a tax-free lump sum bereavement payment of £2,000.

You are entitled to a bereavement payment if:

your husband, wife or civil partner had paid enough national insurance contributions, or
their death was as a result of their job,

and

you were under state pension age when they died, or
your husband, wife or civil partner was not entitled to Category A state pension when they died.

You can’t get a bereavement payment if at the time your husband, wife or civil partner died:

you were divorced from them, or
your civil partnership had been legally ended, or
you were living with someone else as if you were married or in a civil partnership with them, or
you were in prison or legal custody.

For more information about claiming a bereavement payment, see the Directgov website.

Funeral payments

If you are on a low income, you may be entitled to a funeral payment from the social fund, although some or all of this may need to be repaid from the estate of the person who died.

You may be entitled to a funeral payment to help towards the cost of a funeral of your partner, a dependent child or stillborn child or a close friend or family member. To qualify, either you or your partner must receive any of the following benefits: