Funeral Payments

Funeral Payments for people who died on or after 1 April 2018

What is it?

A Funeral Payment is payable to persons on low incomes who have taken responsibility for paying the funeral expenses of a person who has died.

Basic qualifying conditions

You may be able to get a Funeral Payment if you or your partner have taken responsibility for paying the funeral expenses of:

• your deceased partner or child, or
• a close relative or close friend of yours who has died as long as it is reasonable for you to accept responsibility for those expenses (which will depend on the level of contact you had with the person who has died).

To get a payment you or your partner must be entitled to an income-related benefit (see below) when:

• the claim for a funeral payment is made, and
• the person in question died.

Those benefits are:

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, and
• Employed Person’s Allowance.

But you cannot get a Funeral Payment if you and your partner together have capital of more than £6,000.

Amount

A Funeral Payment will meet certain expenses in full and include an allowance for other expenses.

How and when should I apply

Please complete claim form FP1 – Funeral Payment and form FP2 (to be completed in part by the Funeral Director) and take or send them to a Social Security office (address below). You must claim within 12 months of the date of death or you will not be entitled to a Funeral Payment.

Funeral Payments for people who died before 1 April 2018

What is it?

A Funeral Payment is a lump sum payment to assist a person responsible for funeral expensesfor people who died before 1 April 2018.

Basic qualifying conditions

A Funeral Payment is payable if:

The death has occurred, or is treated as having occurred, on the Island and the deceased was, at the date of death:

• ordinarily resident on the Island, or
• absent from the Island being abroad as a serving member of the armed forces or living abroad with a member of the armed forces and was the spouse, civil partner, son, daughter, father or mother of that person and the funeral takes place on the Island, and

The claimant is aged 16 or over and is:

• the personal representative of the deceased
• a person who has paid the deceased’s funeral expenses
• a person who has taken responsibility for payment of the deceased’s funeral expenses, or
• a person entitled under Will or on the intestacy (as the case may be) of the deceased

How and when should I apply

Please complete and return form SF1/BP20 – Claim for Funeral Payment and/or arrears of benefit and take or send it to a Social Security office. You must claim within 12 months of the date of death or you will not be entitled to a Funeral Payment or arrears of benefit.

Contact details: