Bereavement Support Payment UK (2026): Who Qualifies and How to Claim

Bereavement Support Payment (BSP) is a benefit paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to surviving spouses and civil partners when their partner dies. It was introduced from 6 April 2017 under the Pensions Act 2014, replacing three older benefits — the Bereavement Allowance (widow's pension), the Bereavement Payment (a £2,000 lump sum), and the Widowed Parent's Allowance. To qualify: (1) you must be married to or in a civil partnership with the person who died at the date of their death; (2) your partner must have paid National Insurance contributions for at least 25 weeks in any single tax year (or have died because of an industrial accident or disease, in which case the NI contribution condition is waived); (3) you must be under State Pension age when your partner dies; (4) you must normally be living in the UK, an EEA country, Gibraltar, or a country that has a relevant social security reciprocal agreement with the UK. Cohabiting partners — even those in a long-term relationship with children — are not eligible for BSP in England and Wales, regardless of how long they were together. This remains a significant gap in the law, though there are ongoing calls for reform.

BSP is paid at two rates — a higher rate for claimants who were pregnant at the date of the death or who are entitled to Child Benefit for at least one child, and a standard rate for all other qualifying claimants. The payment consists of an initial lump sum followed by up to 18 monthly payments. Both the lump sum and the monthly amount are uprated each April in line with consumer price inflation (CPI); check the current rates on Gov.uk or via the DWP at the time of claiming, as the amounts increase each year. For context, the original 2017 rates were: higher rate — £3,500 lump sum + £350 per month for 18 months; standard rate — £2,500 lump sum + £100 per month for 18 months. By April 2026 these amounts will have been uprated by several years of CPI increases. The total maximum payment under the higher rate across all 18 months significantly exceeds the original values. The 18 monthly payments run consecutively and BSP stops if you reach State Pension age during the 18-month period.

You claim BSP using form BSP1, which is available online at Gov.uk, from any Jobcentre Plus office, or by telephoning the Bereavement Service helpline (0800 151 2012, free from UK landlines and mobiles). You can claim online at Gov.uk/bereavement-support-payment. The critical deadline: you must claim within 3 months of your partner's death to receive the full 18 monthly payments (plus the lump sum). If you claim between 3 months and 21 months after the death, you still receive the lump sum and the remaining monthly payments for whatever time is left of the 21-month window, but you lose the monthly payments for the delay period. If you claim more than 21 months after the death, you receive neither the lump sum nor any monthly payments — your entitlement is extinguished. The 3-month deadline is therefore critically important and is commonly missed by bereaved spouses who are not aware of BSP, particularly where the death was sudden. You will need the deceased's National Insurance number, the death certificate, and your own bank account details to complete the claim.

No — Bereavement Support Payment is not taxable income. This is one of its key advantages over the old Bereavement Allowance, which was taxable. BSP payments — both the lump sum and all 18 monthly payments — are entirely free of income tax and do not need to be declared on a self-assessment tax return. BSP also does not affect entitlement to the Personal Savings Allowance or interact with savings interest rules. From a financial planning perspective, a surviving spouse receiving BSP can save or invest the payments without any immediate income tax consequence. If the BSP is invested and earns income or generates gains, that income or gain is of course taxable in the normal way — but the BSP receipt itself is tax-free.

Since 30 May 2022, Bereavement Support Payment is fully disregarded as income for Universal Credit (UC) purposes — this means BSP payments do not reduce your UC entitlement and are not treated as capital within the first 12 months of receipt. Before May 2022, BSP counted as income and reduced UC awards for some claimants; the law was changed following the Supreme Court ruling in R (Timson) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2023] UKSC 45 which found the earlier treatment to be discriminatory. BSP also does not affect Housing Benefit (it is disregarded as income), Child Tax Credit, or Working Tax Credit. It is not means-tested, so your savings and other income do not reduce the BSP amount you receive. BSP does not count towards the benefit cap.

No — in England and Wales, cohabiting partners (couples who live together but are not married or in a registered civil partnership) are not eligible for Bereavement Support Payment, regardless of the length of the relationship, the presence of children, or whether they were financially dependent on the deceased partner. This is a deliberate policy decision that has been challenged in court several times. In Scotland, following the Supreme Court's ruling in Re McLaughlin [2018] UKSC 48, the law was amended so that cohabiting partners with dependent children are eligible for BSP from 3 August 2018. However, that statutory change was made by the Scottish Parliament using devolved powers and does not apply in England and Wales. Cohabiting partners in England and Wales who are not eligible for BSP may be eligible for other DWP benefits (such as Universal Credit if their income falls below the threshold), but there is no direct equivalent of BSP for them. This gap in protection is one of the strongest practical arguments for cohabiting couples to make wills and enter into binding financial agreements.

The three older bereavement benefits that BSP replaced were: (1) Bereavement Payment — a one-off tax-free lump sum of £2,000 payable to a surviving spouse or civil partner under State Pension age, regardless of children or income; (2) Bereavement Allowance (previously Widow's Pension) — a weekly taxable benefit paid for up to 52 weeks to surviving spouses aged 45 or over who had no dependent children; (3) Widowed Parent's Allowance — a weekly taxable benefit for surviving spouses with at least one dependent child, payable until the youngest child was no longer a qualifying child. These three benefits were consolidated into a single BSP with higher rates and a clearer structure from 6 April 2017. Anyone who was receiving Widowed Parent's Allowance or Bereavement Allowance before April 2017 continues on those old rules; they were not transferred to BSP. If you began receiving one of the old benefits before April 2017, you remain on the old benefit system for the duration of your entitlement.

No — BSP and occupational pension survivor benefits are entirely separate and do not affect each other. A surviving spouse or civil partner may be entitled to both BSP (from the DWP) and a survivor's pension from the deceased's occupational pension scheme simultaneously; BSP does not reduce the survivor's pension and the pension does not reduce BSP. Similarly, the DWP's BSP rules do not count employer pension income as income that affects the BSP amount, and BSP is not means-tested. The two benefits operate on completely different legal frameworks: BSP is governed by social security legislation; occupational pension survivor benefits are governed by the pension scheme's own rules (trust deed and rules). You should claim each separately — BSP from DWP within 3 months, and the pension death benefits by contacting the scheme's trustees or pension provider directly and completing their bereavement claim process, usually by submitting a death certificate and completing the scheme's own claim form.