Money after a partner dies: what is paid and why the first three months decide it

When a husband, wife or partner dies, the state pays Bereavement Support Payment: a one-off sum plus 18 monthly payments. It is not means-tested, but it is tied hard to deadlines. Three months, twelve months and twenty-one months from the death are cliff edges, and the money shrinks at each one.

Who can get Bereavement Support Payment?

The surviving partner, if on the day of the death they were under State Pension age, living in the UK or a country that pays bereavement benefits, and married to the person who died, in a civil partnership with them, or living with them as if married. The payment is not means-tested, so earnings and savings do not affect the amount.

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The person who died must have either paid a certain amount of Class 1 or Class 2 National Insurance contributions in any one tax year since 6 April 1975, or died because of an accident at work or a disease caused by work. If you do not know whether the contributions were enough, claim anyway — the Bereavement Service checks. You cannot claim while in prison. If your partner died before 6 April 2017, the benefit is Widowed Parent's Allowance instead.

How much is paid, and for how long?

There are two rates. The higher rate is a one-off £3,500 plus 18 monthly payments of £350. You get it if, when your partner died, you were getting Child Benefit for a child living with you, or the Child Benefit Office had told you that you were entitled to it (even if you chose not to take it), or you were pregnant. Everyone else who was married or in a civil partnership gets £2,500 and 18 monthly payments of £100.

Payments go into a bank, building society or credit union account. One caveat: if you reach State Pension age within 18 months of the death, you may get fewer monthly payments.

Why do the first three months decide everything?

Because only a claim made within three months of the death brings the full amount — the one-off payment and all 18 monthly payments. After that it drops in steps. Three to twelve months: you keep the one-off payment but get fewer monthly ones. Twelve to twenty-one months: no one-off payment, only some monthly ones. After twenty-one months you usually get nothing.

There is one exception. If the cause of death was confirmed only recently, a claim can still be made beyond 21 months — that is decided by calling the Bereavement Service helpline.

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What if you were not married?

Partners who were living together as if married get the higher rate: £3,500 plus 18 payments of £350. But the right to it opens only if one of three things applied when the partner died — you were getting Child Benefit for a child living with you, or you had been told you were entitled to it, or you were pregnant. That condition does not apply when you are claiming a backdated payment.

One technical point matters here: if it was your partner who was getting or entitled to Child Benefit, you must first make a new Child Benefit claim in your own name, and only then apply for Bereavement Support Payment.

How do you claim?

Three ways: online, by phone or by post. You need four things — your National Insurance number, your bank or building society account details, the date your partner died, and your partner's National Insurance number.

The Bereavement Service helpline is 0800 151 2012, Welsh 0800 731 0453, Relay UK 18001 then the same number, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm. By post you send form BSP1, downloadable or available through the helpline. Northern Ireland has its own route. If you are abroad, call the International Pension Centre on +44 (0) 191 206 9390.

How long does Bereavement Support Payment take to come through?

There is no published deadline for the DWP to decide a claim, and no payment date you can count on in advance. What is fixed is the order. Once the claim is accepted the one-off payment lands first, and the monthly payments follow on the same date each month for eighteen months. Everything goes straight into a bank, building society or credit union account — nothing arrives by cheque or by post, so a claim submitted without correct account details simply sits there.

In practice the wait is weeks rather than days, and what lengthens it is almost always a missing detail rather than a queue: the death certificate information, the National Insurance number of the person who died, your own account details. A claim made by phone avoids the commonest delay, because an adviser works through the form with you and the obvious gaps are caught during the call.

The deadline that actually costs money is yours, not theirs. Claim within three months of the death and you receive the one-off payment and all eighteen monthly payments. Between three and twelve months you still get the one-off payment but lose some of the monthly ones. Between twelve and twenty-one months the one-off payment is gone and only some monthly payments remain. After twenty-one months there is usually nothing at all. Waiting until the estate is sorted out is the most common and most expensive mistake — this payment does not depend on probate in any way.

Does it affect your other benefits?

Not for the first year. Bereavement Support Payment does not affect your benefits for a year after your first payment. After that, money left over from the one-off payment could affect the amount of another benefit if you renew or make a new claim. You must still tell your benefits office — your local Jobcentre Plus, for example — when the payments start.

What else is available towards the funeral?

A separate benefit: Funeral Expenses Payment, for people getting Universal Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit or Housing Benefit (or a Support for Mortgage Interest loan), arranging a funeral in the UK, the EEA or Switzerland, with a qualifying relationship to the person who died. It covers burial fees for a particular plot, cremation fees including the doctor's certificate, travel, moving the body more than 50 miles within the UK, and death certificates, plus up to £1,000 towards everything else — funeral director's fees, the coffin, flowers. Where the deceased had a pre-paid funeral plan, it gives no more than £120 for items the plan does not cover. It rarely covers the whole cost, and anything you receive from the estate is deducted.

The deadline runs from the funeral, not the death: apply within six months of the funeral, even while waiting on a qualifying benefit decision. You can claim before the funeral, but only with an invoice or signed contract from the funeral director — an estimate will not do. Claims go through the same helpline or by post on form SF200. Scotland has Funeral Support Payment instead; Northern Ireland has its own route.