Who can claim
You can usually claim if your husband, wife or civil partner died and you were under State Pension age at the time. Your partner needs to have paid National Insurance contributions for a minimum period, or have died because of an accident at work or a disease caused by work.
Unmarried partners who lived together can also claim if they have children and were entitled to Child Benefit. Unmarried partners without children are not eligible.
The benefit applies to deaths on or after April 2017. People whose partner died before then may have claimed the older Widowed Parent's Allowance or Bereavement Allowance instead. You cannot claim if you were divorced from the person when they died.
- Married couples and civil partners
- Cohabiting partners with dependent children
- Under State Pension age at the time of death
- Partner met the National Insurance conditions
How it is paid
The payment comes in two parts: a larger first payment, then monthly payments for up to 18 months. Parents, and people who were pregnant when their partner died, get a higher rate.
The amounts are set by the government and can change, so check GOV.UK for the current figures before you plan around them.
If you get other benefits, GOV.UK explains how the two fit together, so check before you budget. People on certain means-tested benefits may also get help with funeral costs through a Funeral Expenses Payment.
Why claiming quickly matters
If you claim within three months of the death, you get the full amount. You can still claim up to 21 months after, but you will lose some of the monthly payments. Grief makes paperwork hard, so ask a friend or relative to help start the claim.
You can claim by phone or by post, and the Tell Us Once service can let several government departments know about the death in one go.
How it fits with life insurance
Bereavement Support Payment helps in the first months after a loss. It is not designed to replace a partner's income for years or to clear a mortgage. Life insurance or family income benefit can do that.
Cohabiting couples without children receive nothing from this benefit, which makes private cover more important for them.
Bereavement Support Payment also stops after 18 months, while a mortgage, childcare and household bills can run for many years. A lump sum or family income benefit can carry your family through that longer stretch and give them time to adjust.
How Hi Tomorrow helps families plan
We help you work out what your family would have from the state, from work and from any existing policies, then match life cover to the gap. If your partner has died, we can also help with a claim on a policy we arranged, and point you to the right places for state support.