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Bereavement benefit payment

GrahamM
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Someone brought this to my attention yesterday - as I'm not sure its well known I thought I'd share it.

There is a £2,000 benefit you can claim if your husband or wife or partner has died and you are under the pension age provided they have paid enough National Insurance.

www.gov.uk/.../eligibility

 

Hope this may help someone

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    Thanks for sharing. You have to be legally married though to claim. There is also the weekly payment you can claim for up to 1 year.

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    Good to share this type of information.  When I registered my husband's death I was given several leaflets and one of them was about this single payment plus the bereavement benefit (payable for the first year) At the present time you do have to be legally married at the time of your spouses's death and I received both as my husband was  under pension age at death.  It was something the funeral directors also advised me of as the lump sum payment is seen as being available to help towards funeral costs and it was indeed paid very promptly indeed. Jules

  • Offline in reply to jules54

    Makes me realise there are some benefits to being married. It also makes a difference with your estate when you pass. If you are not married and it's over a certain amount you get taxed on it! Madness, after 17 years I'm thinking I should get married :-)

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    Why is it there are absolutely no benefits for people over 65?  My son and i were paying up to £300 per month in fares to get to hospital plus I have medical supplies I have to buy which arent covered by the NHS.  I was told by Macmillan that if you are over 65 and don't receive benefits then you can claim for absolutely nothing.  

  • Offline in reply to Michelle1978

    Hi Michelle,

    I was 37 years married and can highly recommend it though think if  you can prove long term committed partnership benefits should be available in some form.  Jules

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    Hi Graham

    Married couples and those in in same sex civil partnerships can claim the allowance. Plus there is a further payment of up to £112 which can be claimed for up to one year after bereavement.

    But those six million people in the UK living as common law partners are not eligible.

    Even if like me have been together 40 years. Apparently it is too difficult to ascertain if we really are partners. Although it was easy enough for the authorities to certify we were partners when a tax payment was due to be paid to HMRC and again when it suited them to reduce a certain benefit payment during a period of illness.

    The recent interest in this was due to the discrimination element involved against those living as partners even if they have paid NI and tax for 40+ years. A group of MPs had challenged the government as some 7000 newly-bereaved partners receive nothing as they are not married or in a civil partnership.

    A further case heard in the high court on Friday by Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, a heterosexual couple who claimed it was discriminatory not to be able to enter a civil partnership rather than marry lost their challenge. It seems there is still some way to go in treating all people equally, under the law.  Kim

     

  • Offline in reply to kimchoson

    Absolute madness that they can accept you're partners when they benefit financially but if you want something it's not acknowledged. You have to provide your marriage certificate so I know I'd get nowhere and wouldn't bother trying.

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