Losing a husband, wife or partner is not the moment anyone wants to be working out benefit rules. But two things on this page are genuinely time-sensitive, and both are easy to miss in the first weeks. The first is that the benefit you are probably looking for has been replaced by something narrower. The second is a three-month deadline that starts on the day of the death. If you read nothing else, read those two sections.
What happened to the widow's pension
If you are searching for a "widow's pension", you are looking for a benefit that no longer exists in that form. For deaths on or after 6 April 2017, three older benefits were swept away and replaced by a single one:
- Bereavement Allowance (which many people still call the widow's pension) - gone.
- Widowed Parent's Allowance - gone for new claims.
- Bereavement Payment (the old £2,000 lump sum) - gone.
In their place is Bereavement Support Payment. The crucial difference is not the amount but the duration. The old benefits could be paid for years, in some cases right up to State Pension age. Bereavement Support Payment lasts a maximum of 18 months and then stops. It is designed as a short-term cushion after a death, not as a replacement income.
This mismatch matters because a lot of the advice still circulating online - and a lot of what friends and family remember - describes the old system. If someone tells you that you will get a widow's pension until you retire, they are describing rules that were withdrawn nearly a decade ago. The exception is people whose partner died before 6 April 2017: if you were already receiving Widowed Parent's Allowance then, those payments carry on under the old rules for as long as you meet the conditions.
There is one other survival from the old world. If you were already over State Pension age when your husband, wife or civil partner died, Bereavement Support Payment is not available to you at all - but you may be able to inherit part of their State Pension instead, paid with your own for life. That is covered in detail further down this page, and for many readers of this site it is the section that actually applies.
The 3-month deadline that costs people money
Bereavement Support Payment is not fully backdated. The date you claim decides how much you get, and the money you lose by claiming late is gone permanently:
- Within 3 months of the death: you get the one-off payment and all 18 monthly payments. This is the full entitlement.
- Between 3 and 12 months: you still get the one-off payment, but the monthly payments for the months that have already passed are lost.
- Between 12 and 21 months: you lose the one-off payment altogether, and only receive whatever monthly payments remain.
- After 21 months: you normally cannot claim at all, unless the cause of death was only recently confirmed - for example after an inquest.
At the standard rate, waiting six months rather than three costs you around £300. At the higher rate it costs over £1,000. You do not need the death certificate, probate, or anything else settled before you claim. Ring the Bereavement Service Helpline on 0800 151 2012 and start it.
Tell Us Once is the service that reports a death to HMRC, the DWP, the council, the DVLA and the Passport Office in one conversation. It is genuinely useful and you should use it. But it only reports the death - it stops the payments your partner was receiving and updates their records. It does not put in a claim for Bereavement Support Payment on your behalf. People routinely assume it has, and discover months later that nothing was ever claimed. The three-month clock does not pause while you assume.
Bereavement Support Payment explained
Who qualifies
To claim Bereavement Support Payment, all of the following need to be true:
- Your husband, wife or civil partner died on or after 6 April 2017 - or you were living with them as if married and have dependent children (see the 2023 change below).
- You were under State Pension age when they died. This is a hard cut-off, with no discretion.
- They had either paid enough National Insurance - Class 1 or Class 2 contributions in any single tax year since 6 April 1975 - or died as a result of an accident at work or an industrial disease, in which case the National Insurance condition is waived entirely.
- You were normally living in the UK, or in a country that pays bereavement benefits.
You cannot receive it while you are in prison. Note what is not on the list: there is no test of your income, your savings, your age (other than being below State Pension age), how long you were together, or whether you work.
The two rates
Which rate you get depends on one thing only: whether you had dependent children when your partner died.
| Rate | One-off payment | Monthly payment | Total over 18 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Higher rate You were entitled to Child Benefit, or were pregnant, when they died | £3,500 | £350 for 18 months | £9,800 |
| Standard rate Everyone else who qualifies | £2,500 | £100 for 18 months | £4,300 |
Both figures are confirmed on the GOV.UK Bereavement Support Payment page. Unlike most benefits, these amounts have been held flat rather than uprated each April, so do check the current position before you rely on them.
How it is paid, and how it interacts with everything else
The one-off payment lands first, usually within a few weeks of the claim being processed, then the monthly instalments follow into the same bank account. Three features make Bereavement Support Payment unusually generous in the way it is treated:
- It is tax-free. You do not declare it and it does not use your Personal Allowance.
- It is not means-tested. Your income, savings, pension and any life insurance payout are all irrelevant to whether you qualify or how much you get.
- It is disregarded for 12 months when calculating means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit, Housing Benefit and Pension Credit, and it is ignored for the benefit cap.
That 12-month disregard has a sting in the tail. After a year, whatever is left of the money sitting in your account counts as ordinary savings. If you are relying on means-tested support, leaving a £3,500 lump sum untouched in a savings account for over a year can quietly reduce what you receive.
How to claim
There are three routes, and the phone is usually the fastest:
- By phone: the Bereavement Service Helpline on 0800 151 2012 can take the whole claim in one call.
- Online: through gov.uk/bereavement-support-payment.
- By post: download and return the BSP1 form.
Have to hand your own National Insurance number and bank details, and your partner's National Insurance number and date of death. That is genuinely all you need to start - not the death certificate, not the will, not a grant of probate.
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Unmarried partners: what changed in February 2023
For years, bereavement benefits were only available to people who were legally married or in a civil partnership. That excluded a great many families where the parents had simply never married - and where the surviving parent was left bringing up children alone with no help at all.
Two court cases changed that. In McLaughlin (Northern Ireland) and Jackson (England and Wales), the courts held that excluding cohabiting parents was incompatible with human rights law. In February 2023 the rules were amended: a surviving cohabiting partner can now claim Bereavement Support Payment if they were living with their partner as if married and were entitled to Child Benefit for a child living with them when their partner died, or were pregnant at the time.
Two points that are easy to miss. First, the change only helps cohabiting partners with dependent children - a cohabiting couple without children still cannot claim. Second, the change was made retrospective for some earlier deaths. If you were refused bereavement benefits in the past purely because you were not married, or you never bothered applying because you knew you would be turned down, it is worth ringing the Bereavement Service to ask whether you can claim now. There were time limits attached to the retrospective route, so ask sooner rather than later.
If you were over State Pension age: inheriting State Pension
This is the section that applies to most people reading this site, and it is the one general bereavement guides tend to rush. If you were over State Pension age when your husband, wife or civil partner died, you cannot claim Bereavement Support Payment - the under-State-Pension-age condition rules you out completely. But you are not left with nothing. You may be able to inherit part of their State Pension, which is added to your own weekly payment and continues for the rest of your life.
What you can inherit depends on which State Pension system applies, which in turn depends on when you and your late partner reached - or would have reached - State Pension age. The dividing line is 6 April 2016.
Under the new State Pension (reaching State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016)
The new State Pension was designed to be a single, personal entitlement built on your own National Insurance record, so there is far less to inherit than under the old system. The main thing that can pass across is a protected payment.
A protected payment exists where someone's entitlement built up before April 2016 was worth more than the full new State Pension - typically because they had years of Additional State Pension or SERPS. The excess is protected and paid on top of the standard amount. If your marriage or civil partnership began before 6 April 2016, your partner reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016, and they died on or after that date, you can inherit half of their protected payment.
For context, the full new State Pension in 2026/27 is £241.30 a week, or £12,547.60 a year. A protected payment sits above that figure, so inheriting half of one can be worth anything from a few pounds a week to a meaningful amount - it depends entirely on your partner's record. Our guide to how much State Pension you will get explains how the protected payment is worked out.
Under the old system (reaching State Pension age before 6 April 2016)
The older rules are more generous and considerably more complicated. Broadly, a widow or widower may be able to:
- Inherit part of their Additional State Pension (SERPS or the State Second Pension). How much depends on when the late partner reached State Pension age and, for SERPS built up before October 2002, when they were born - the proportion can range from half up to the whole amount.
- Have their basic State Pension topped up using the late partner's National Insurance record, up to the full basic rate, where their own record was incomplete. This matters most for women who took time out of work to raise children and never built a full record of their own.
- Inherit deferred State Pension. If your partner had put off claiming their State Pension and died while it was deferred, you may be able to inherit the extra weekly amount they had built up, or a lump sum.
You will normally lose the right to inherit anything from your late partner's State Pension if you remarry or form a new civil partnership before you reach State Pension age. If you are already over State Pension age when you remarry, inherited entitlement already in payment is generally not affected. It is an unpleasant thing to have to think about, but it is worth knowing before any decision is made rather than afterwards.
Inherited State Pension is one of the genuinely complicated corners of the benefits system. The answer turns on dates - when each of you reached State Pension age, when you married, when they died - and on the detail of a National Insurance record you may never have seen. Nobody should be working this out from a website while grieving.
Contact the Pension Service through GOV.UK, tell them your partner has died, and ask them to recalculate your State Pension including anything you can inherit. It is not automatic in every case. GOV.UK also has an interactive State Pension through your partner tool that will narrow it down in a few questions.
While you are at it, check Pension Credit. A household that was comfortably above the threshold on two incomes can fall below it on one, and Pension Credit is a gateway to Council Tax Reduction, help with NHS costs and - for over-75s - a free TV licence. See our State Pension guide and our wider benefits and entitlements pages for the full picture.
Help with funeral costs
A funeral is often the first large bill after a death, and it usually falls due long before the estate is settled. There is help, but only for people on certain means-tested benefits.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland this is the Funeral Expenses Payment. In Scotland it is the Funeral Support Payment, administered by Social Security Scotland. Both work in broadly the same way. To qualify you (or your partner) must be receiving a qualifying benefit - Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit, Working Tax Credit with a disability element, or Child Tax Credit - and you must be the person responsible for arranging the funeral, with a close enough relationship to the person who died.
What it covers:
- Burial or cremation fees in full, including the cost of a doctor's certificate.
- Certain travel costs to arrange or attend the funeral.
- Moving the body more than 50 miles within the UK.
- Death certificates and other necessary documents.
- Up to £1,000 towards everything else - the funeral director's fee, the coffin, flowers, and so on.
Two things to be realistic about. First, a Funeral Expenses Payment is recovered from the estate if there is money in it, so it works more like an advance than a gift. It is not recovered from a home or personal possessions left to a surviving spouse or civil partner. Second, with the "other expenses" element capped at £1,000, it will not usually cover a full funeral - the average UK funeral costs several times that. Ask the funeral director for their simple or direct cremation options before committing, and see our guide to probate costs for how funeral expenses are treated when the estate is wound up.
Other bereavement benefits worth knowing about
Widowed Parent's Allowance (deaths before 6 April 2017)
Widowed Parent's Allowance was a weekly payment for a surviving parent bringing up children, and it could run for years. New claims are only possible where the death was before 6 April 2017, but existing awards continue to be paid under the old rules. It stops if you reach State Pension age, remarry, form a new civil partnership, or start living with someone as a couple - so if any of those apply, tell the DWP, because overpayments are recovered.
Guardian's Allowance
If you are bringing up a child whose parents have both died - or one parent has died and the other cannot be found, is serving a long prison sentence, or is in hospital under a court order - you may be able to claim Guardian's Allowance. It is a weekly tax-free payment on top of Child Benefit, and you must be entitled to Child Benefit for the child to receive it. You do not have to be a legal guardian, and you do not have to have formally adopted the child (in fact, adopting them normally ends entitlement).
War Widow's or Widower's Pension
This is a completely separate scheme for people whose husband, wife or civil partner died as a result of their service in the Armed Forces, or from an illness or injury caused or worsened by service. It is administered by Veterans UK rather than the DWP, and it can be paid alongside other bereavement help. If there is any service connection at all - including deaths many years after leaving the forces where service was a contributing factor - it is worth investigating.
Support if you were dependent on their income
If losing your partner's income leaves you struggling, the ordinary benefits system still applies. Depending on your age that means Universal Credit (below State Pension age) or Pension Credit (above it), plus Council Tax Reduction and Housing Benefit. If your own health means you need help with personal care, Attendance Allowance is not means-tested and is often the single most under-claimed benefit among older people living alone.
Which bereavement benefit applies to you?
- 1 Your husband, wife or civil partner died on or after 6 April 2017 and you were under State Pension age at the time→ Bereavement Support Payment is your benefit. Claim within 3 months of the death to get the lump sum and all 18 monthly payments. If you were getting Child Benefit or were pregnant when they died, you get the higher rate (£3,500 plus £350 a month); otherwise the standard rate (£2,500 plus £100 a month).
- 2 You were living with your partner as if married, you were under State Pension age, and you have dependent children→ Since February 2023 you can claim Bereavement Support Payment too, even though you were not married or in a civil partnership. You must have been entitled to Child Benefit for a child living with you (or been pregnant) when they died. Retrospective claims are possible for some earlier deaths - contact the Bereavement Service to check.
- 3 You were over State Pension age when your spouse or civil partner died→ You cannot claim Bereavement Support Payment - but you are not left with nothing. You may be able to inherit part of their State Pension, which is added to your own weekly payment for life. Contact the Pension Service to have your entitlement recalculated. Also check Pension Credit, because your household income has just changed.
- 4 Your partner died before 6 April 2017 and you are bringing up their children→ Widowed Parent's Allowance is the relevant benefit. New claims are only possible for deaths before that date, and existing awards continue to be paid under the old rules for as long as you qualify.
- 5 You are on a means-tested benefit and are struggling to pay for the funeral→ Apply for a Funeral Expenses Payment (Funeral Support Payment in Scotland). It covers burial or cremation fees in full plus up to £1,000 towards other costs such as the funeral director, coffin and flowers. It is repaid from the estate if there is money in it.
Every bereavement benefit at a glance
| Benefit | Who it is for | What you get | How to claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bereavement Support Payment | Spouse, civil partner, or cohabiting partner with children. Under State Pension age at the date of death, which must be on or after 6 April 2017. | £3,500 + £350/month (higher rate) or £2,500 + £100/month (standard), for 18 months. Tax-free. | Bereavement Service on 0800 151 2012, online, or form BSP1. Within 3 months. |
| Inherited State Pension | Widows and widowers who were over State Pension age, or who reach it later. Depends on marriage and State Pension age dates. | Half of a protected payment, or part of an Additional State Pension, added to your own pension for life. | Contact the Pension Service and ask for a recalculation. Not always automatic. |
| Funeral Expenses Payment | People on a qualifying means-tested benefit who are arranging the funeral. England, Wales and Northern Ireland. | Burial or cremation fees in full, plus up to £1,000 for other costs. Repaid from the estate. | Apply via GOV.UK or the Bereavement Service, normally within 6 months of the funeral. |
| Funeral Support Payment | The Scottish equivalent, for people on qualifying benefits. | Similar cover, administered by Social Security Scotland. | Apply to Social Security Scotland. |
| Widowed Parent's Allowance | Surviving parents where the death was before 6 April 2017. Closed to new claims for later deaths. | A weekly payment while you have dependent children. Existing awards continue. | Bereavement Service on 0800 151 2012. Report remarriage or cohabiting. |
| Guardian's Allowance | Anyone bringing up a child whose parents have died (or one has died and the other cannot care for them). | A weekly tax-free payment on top of Child Benefit, which you must also be entitled to. | Guardian's Allowance Unit, via GOV.UK. |
| War Widow(er)'s Pension | Where the death was caused or worsened by service in the Armed Forces. | A separate ongoing pension, payable alongside other bereavement help. | Veterans UK, not the DWP. |
Figures verified against GOV.UK in July 2026. Rules and some payment routes differ in Scotland and Northern Ireland - Scotland runs its own funeral support, and Northern Ireland administers bereavement benefits separately through the Department for Communities, though the amounts mirror those in Great Britain.
Three real situations
Situation: Margaret's husband John died in May 2026, aged 76. They married in 1978. John had a long career with a large employer and had built up substantial SERPS, which showed up as a protected payment on top of his new State Pension. Margaret assumed she could claim a widow's pension.
- Margaret cannot claim Bereavement Support Payment. She was well over State Pension age when John died, and that rules her out completely - the fact that she is grieving and has lost half the household income makes no difference to the rule.
- What she can do is inherit half of John's protected payment. They married before 6 April 2016, John reached State Pension age after it, and he died after it - so the conditions are met. The inherited amount is added to her own weekly State Pension and paid for the rest of her life.
- She rings the Pension Service and asks them to recalculate her State Pension including anything inherited. This is not always applied automatically, and it is worth chasing.
- With the household down to one income, she also checks Pension Credit - the threshold that she was comfortably above as a couple looks very different for a single person.
Situation: Priya and Daniel lived together for fourteen years and had two children, but never married. Daniel died suddenly in March 2026. Priya receives Child Benefit for both children. A friend told her that bereavement benefits are only for married couples.
- Her friend is describing the rules as they were before February 2023. Since then, cohabiting partners with dependent children can claim Bereavement Support Payment, following the McLaughlin and Jackson rulings.
- Because she was entitled to Child Benefit when Daniel died, Priya qualifies for the higher rate: £3,500 as a one-off payment plus £350 a month for 18 months - £9,800 in total.
- She claims in May 2026, within three months of the death, so she gets the lump sum and all 18 monthly payments. Had she believed her friend and left it until December, she would have kept the lump sum but lost around £2,000 of monthly payments.
- Because the money is disregarded for 12 months, it does not affect her Universal Credit for the first year. She notes the date so she is not caught out when the disregard ends.
Situation: Alan's wife Carol died in January 2026. He is 63, still working part-time, and their children are grown up. He has around £40,000 in savings and assumed that ruled him out of any help.
- His savings are completely irrelevant. Bereavement Support Payment is not means-tested - there is no savings limit and no income test.
- He is under State Pension age and Carol had a full National Insurance record, so he qualifies. With no dependent children he gets the standard rate: £2,500 followed by £100 a month for 18 months, £4,300 in total, all tax-free.
- He used Tell Us Once when registering the death and assumed that was the claim made. It was not - he had to claim separately. He rings 0800 151 2012 in March, still inside the three-month window, and keeps the full entitlement.
- When he reaches State Pension age he should check whether he can inherit any of Carol's State Pension. That is a separate question from Bereavement Support Payment and is dealt with by the Pension Service, not the Bereavement Service.
What else needs doing
Bereavement benefits are only one part of what follows a death. If your partner owned property in their sole name, or held significant savings or investments, you will probably need a grant of probate before anything can be transferred or sold. Our guides to what probate is and when you need it and what probate costs cover that ground, and the probate and estate hub collects everything in one place.
It is also, in time, a prompt to look at your own arrangements - a will that still names your late partner as sole executor and beneficiary, a lasting power of attorney that was never made, pension death benefit nominations that are out of date. None of that is urgent in the first weeks. It is worth a note in the diary for a few months' time.
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Frequently asked questions
- Does the widow's pension still exist in the UK?
- Not under that name, and not in the form most people picture. The old bereavement benefits - Widow's Pension, Bereavement Allowance, the Bereavement Payment and Widowed Parent's Allowance - were replaced by Bereavement Support Payment for anyone whose husband, wife or civil partner died on or after 6 April 2017. The big difference is duration. The old benefits could be paid for years, sometimes until State Pension age. Bereavement Support Payment is a lump sum followed by monthly payments for a maximum of 18 months, and then it stops. If your partner died before 6 April 2017 you may still be receiving Widowed Parent's Allowance under the old rules, and those payments continue.
- How much is Bereavement Support Payment?
- There are two rates. The higher rate is a one-off payment of £3,500 followed by £350 a month for 18 months - a total of £9,800 if you claim in time. You get the higher rate if you were entitled to Child Benefit when your partner died, or you were pregnant. The standard rate is a one-off payment of £2,500 followed by £100 a month for 18 months, a total of £4,300. The money is tax-free and not means-tested, so your income and savings make no difference to the amount.
- What is the deadline for claiming Bereavement Support Payment?
- Claim within 3 months of the death to receive the one-off payment and all 18 monthly payments. If you claim between 3 and 12 months you still get the lump sum, but you lose the monthly payments for the months that have already passed - they are not backdated. If you claim between 12 and 21 months you lose the one-off payment altogether and only receive whatever monthly payments are left. After 21 months you normally cannot claim at all. Every month you wait costs you money, so this is the single most urgent thing to deal with.
- Who is eligible for Bereavement Support Payment?
- You must have been under State Pension age when your husband, wife or civil partner died, and normally living in the UK or a country that pays bereavement benefits. Your partner must have paid enough Class 1 or Class 2 National Insurance contributions in any single tax year since 6 April 1975, or have died because of an accident at work or a disease caused by their job. Since February 2023 you can also claim if you were living together as if married rather than legally married or in a civil partnership - but only if you were entitled to Child Benefit for a child living with you, or were pregnant, when they died. You cannot get it if you are in prison.
- Can I claim bereavement benefits if I am over State Pension age?
- No, Bereavement Support Payment is only for people under State Pension age at the date of death. But you may be able to inherit part of your late spouse or civil partner's State Pension instead, which is paid with your own pension for the rest of your life. Under the new State Pension you may inherit half of any protected payment they had. Under the older system you may be able to inherit part of their Additional State Pension, or have your basic State Pension topped up using their National Insurance record. The rules depend on when each of you reached, or would have reached, State Pension age - so contact the Pension Service and ask them to recalculate your entitlement. It is also worth checking Pension Credit, because losing one income can bring a household within reach of it.
- Can unmarried partners claim bereavement benefits?
- Yes, in limited circumstances. Following the McLaughlin and Jackson court rulings, the law was changed in February 2023 so that cohabiting partners with dependent children can claim Bereavement Support Payment. You need to have been living with your partner as if you were married, and to have been entitled to Child Benefit for a child living with you when they died, or to have been pregnant. Cohabiting partners without children still cannot claim. The change was made retrospective for some earlier deaths, so if you were turned down in the past because you were not married, it is worth ringing the Bereavement Service to ask whether you can now claim.
- Does Bereavement Support Payment affect my other benefits?
- Not for the first year. Bereavement Support Payment is tax-free, is not means-tested, and is disregarded for the benefit cap. It is also ignored when working out means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit, Pension Credit and Housing Benefit for 12 months from the date of the first payment. After 12 months, any of the money you still have in the bank counts as savings in the normal way, which is one reason people are advised not to leave the lump sum sitting untouched in a savings account if they are relying on means-tested help.
- Does Tell Us Once claim bereavement benefits for me?
- No, and this catches a lot of people out. Tell Us Once is a service that reports the death to government departments in one go - HMRC, DWP, the DVLA, the Passport Office, the local council - so you do not have to contact each of them separately. It stops payments the person was receiving and updates their records. It does not make a claim on your behalf. Bereavement Support Payment must be claimed separately by you, by phone, online or by post, and the 3-month deadline is running from the date of death whether or not you have used Tell Us Once.
- What help is there with funeral costs?
- If you receive certain means-tested benefits - such as Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Income Support or Housing Benefit - you can apply for a Funeral Expenses Payment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or a Funeral Support Payment in Scotland. It covers burial or cremation fees, certain medical and travel costs, and up to £1,000 towards other expenses such as the funeral director's bill, the coffin and flowers. It rarely covers the whole funeral. Anything you receive is recovered from the deceased person's estate if there is money in it, though not from a home or personal possessions left to a surviving spouse or civil partner.
- How do I claim Bereavement Support Payment?
- The quickest route is to ring the Bereavement Service Helpline on 0800 151 2012, which can take the claim over the phone. You can also claim online through GOV.UK or download the BSP1 form and post it. You will need your own National Insurance number and bank details, and your late partner's National Insurance number and date of death. You do not need to wait for the death certificate or for probate before you claim - and you should not, because the 3-month clock is already running.
This page is general information, not financial, legal or benefits advice, and it cannot take account of your particular circumstances. Benefit rates and rules change, and some rules differ in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Always check the current position on GOV.UK or get a free benefits check before relying on any figure here. See our disclaimer.
For free, confidential help with the practical side, Citizens Advice will check every benefit you might be entitled to and help you fill in the forms. And if you are struggling with the grief itself rather than the paperwork, Cruse Bereavement Support offers free support by phone, online and face to face - their helpline is 0808 808 1677. There is no threshold of "bad enough" to reach before you are allowed to ring them.