Bereavement Support Payment

If your husband, wife, civil partner or partner you lived with as if you were married or in a civil partnership has recently died you may be able to get Bereavement Support Payment.

What is Bereavement Support Payment

Bereavement Support Payment is a benefit based on your late partner’s National Insurance (NI) contributions.

By your partner we mean either your husband, wife, civil partner or partner that you lived with as if you were married to or in a civil partnership with them at the time of their death.

Bereavement Support Payment is not means-tested. This means that any income you have or how much you have in savings will not affect what you get.

Bereavement support payment does not affect any other benefit you get.

Who can get Bereavement Support Payment

You may be able to get Bereavement Support Payment if your late partner died on or after 6 April 2017 and at the time of their death you were:

• Under state pension age, and
  
  
• Ordinarily resident in the Isle of Man or in certain other countries

And you were either:

• Married to or in a civil partnership with the person who died, or
  
  
• Living with the person who died as if you were married to them or in a civil partnership with them and you were getting Child Benefit for a child under the age of 20, or you weren't entitled to Child Benefit only because your reckonable income for Child Benefit purposes was too high, or
  
  
• Living with the person who died as if you were married to them or in a civil partnership with them and you were expecting a child

If you weren’t married to or in a civil partnership with your late partner and they were claiming Child Benefit for your child (or children) you must make a claim to transfer the Child Benefit to your name before your claim for Bereavement Support Payment can be considered.

Your late partner must have either:

• Paid a certain amount of Class 1 or Class 2 National Insurance
  contributions in any tax year since 6 April 1975, or
  
  
• Died because of an accident at work or a disease caused by work

National insurance contributions paid in the UK and in certain other countries can be counted for this purpose.

If you’re not sure whether your partner paid enough National Insurance contributions contact the Pensions Team (see contact details above).

You cannot claim Bereavement Support Payment if you’re in prison.

If your partner died before 6 April 2017, you may be able to get Widowed Parent’s Allowance instead.

How and when to claim

Send your completed claim form to us as soon as you can.

You can download a claim form (BSP1) from this page or ask us to send you one.

If you don’t make your claim within 3 months of your partner’s death you may lose some benefit you might otherwise have been entitled to.

If you live in the UK you should make your claim for Bereavement Support Payment to the UK Department for Work and Pensions.

What you'll get

If you qualify for Bereavement Support Payment you will get a one-off, lump sum payment of £3,700 plus weekly payments of £157.40 (2026-2027 rate) normally for up to 78 weeks.

But if at the end of the 78 week period you are responsible for a child (or children) aged under 6 you will continue to get Bereavement Support Payment until your youngest (or only) child’s 6th birthday.

You may get Bereavement Support Payment for less than 78 weeks depending on when you reach state pension age.

Payments will usually be made into your bank account or online account.

Normally we pay Bereavement Support Payment every 4 weeks, but you can choose to be paid weekly.