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Later Life GuideSee what you can claim

Bereavement Support Payment

Updated 1 November 2026
The short answer

Bereavement Support Payment is only for a widow, widower, civil partner or cohabiting partner who was under State Pension age when their partner died. If you were already over State Pension age, you cannot claim it — check inherited State Pension instead. For 2026/27, it pays a lump sum plus up to 18 monthly payments.

Bereavement Support Payment is a working-age bereavement benefit, and its age rule is the single most important fact for anyone over 60 checking it. This page sets out who qualifies, what it pays for 2026/27, the deadlines for claiming, and what a widow or widower over State Pension age should check instead.

Who can get Bereavement Support Payment?

You can only get Bereavement Support Payment if you were under State Pension age when your husband, wife, civil partner or cohabiting partner died. That is about your age when they died, not your age now or when you claim.

The law sets this out as a condition of entitlement, not a detail buried in the guidance (Pensions Act 2014, section 30(1)(b), checked 1 November 2026).

GOV.UK puts the same rule in plain terms: when your partner died, you must have been under State Pension age, living in the UK or a country that pays bereavement benefits, and married to your partner, in a civil partnership with them, or living with them as if you were married (GOV.UK, Bereavement Support Payment, checked 1 November 2026).

If you had already reached State Pension age when your partner died, Bereavement Support Payment is not available to you at all, whatever your circumstances otherwise. The next section covers what to check instead.

What can I get instead if I’m over State Pension age?

GOV.UK says you may be able to inherit an extra payment on top of your own new State Pension if you are widowed, as long as you do not remarry or form a new civil partnership before State Pension age (GOV.UK, The new State Pension, checked 1 November 2026). What you can inherit depends on when the marriage began.

The New State Pension guide covers three separate elements: Additional State Pension built up before 6 April 2016, a protected payment, and extra State Pension or a lump sum where a partner died while deferring their own pension or after claiming a deferred one. Our State Pension page covers the main rules, and the deferring page covers what a widow or widower cannot inherit if their partner had deferred claiming.

The National Insurance condition

Bereavement Support Payment also depends on your late partner’s National Insurance record, not only your own age. For at least one tax year of their working life, they must have paid enough Class 1 or Class 2 contributions, or have died because of a work accident or a work-related disease (Pensions Act 2014, section 31(1), checked 1 November 2026).

GOV.UK’s plain-English version adds an important reassurance: you can still make a claim if you are not sure whether your partner paid enough National Insurance — the Bereavement Service will check for you (GOV.UK, Bereavement Support Payment, checked 1 November 2026).

Married, civil partners and cohabiting parents

If a cohabiting partner is pregnant, or entitled to Child Benefit for a child living with them when their partner died, they qualify too. Married and civil partner claimants have always qualified. This cohabiting-partner route was added by the Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2023, which came into force on 9 February 2023.

The Order amended the Pensions Act to insert this route, treating it as if it had applied from 30 August 2018 (Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2023, article 1(3), checked 15 September 2026). That created a retrospective claim window for cohabiting parents bereaved between 30 August 2018 and 9 February 2023.

That retrospective window has now closed: it ran for 21 months from the Order’s commencement and ended around 9 November 2024. Cohabiting partners bereaved from 9 February 2023 onward follow the ordinary 3-month and 21-month time limits below, the same as married and civil-partner claimants.

How much Bereavement Support Payment pays in 2026/27

Bereavement Support Payment pays a lump sum then up to 18 monthly payments, at one of two rates. The higher rate is a £3,500 lump sum plus 18 payments of £350 a month; the standard rate is £2,500 plus 18 payments of £100 a month (Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027 and GOV.UK, Bereavement Support Payment, checked 1 November 2026).

Cohabiting partners get the higher-rate figures regardless of whether they have children or were pregnant — the lower, standard rate only applies to a childless married or civil-partner claimant. These figures are frozen at the same level as 2025/26; unlike some other bereavement benefits, Bereavement Support Payment is not being uprated for 2026/27.

The claim time limits

GOV.UK says you usually need to claim within 3 months of your partner’s death to get the full amount, and within 21 months to get anything at all (GOV.UK, Bereavement Support Payment, checked 1 November 2026). Between those points, the amount tapers the longer you wait, so claiming sooner is worth doing even if the paperwork feels unfinished.

The tapering works in steps: within 12 months you can still get the lump sum but fewer monthly payments; within 21 months you can get some monthly payments but not the lump sum; after 21 months, GOV.UK says, you usually cannot get anything. If you reach State Pension age within 18 months of your partner’s death, GOV.UK says you may get fewer monthly payments than the full 18 (GOV.UK, Bereavement Support Payment, checked 1 November 2026).

How to claim

You can claim Bereavement Support Payment online, by phone or by post, and GOV.UK’s digital service says it takes about 15 minutes to apply. You will need your own and your partner’s National Insurance numbers, the date they died, and your bank or building society details (apply-for-bereavement-support-payment.dwp.gov.uk, checked 1 November 2026).

The online application cannot be saved and resumed. Leave it inactive for more than 30 minutes and it times out, so it is worth having your documents to hand before you start. The Bereavement Service helpline is 0800 151 2012 (Welsh line 0800 731 0453; Relay UK 18001 then the same number), Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. By post, ask the helpline to send form BSP1. If you’re abroad, the International Pension Centre is +44 (0)191 206 9390.

If you’re also arranging the funeral itself, that is a separate claim: our Funeral Expenses Payment page covers help with those costs, based on your own benefits rather than your partner’s.

Effect on other benefits

Bereavement Support Payment will not affect your other benefits for a year after your first payment, GOV.UK says. After that year, any money you still have left from the payment could count as savings if you claim or renew a means-tested benefit, so it is worth telling your benefits office once you start getting it (GOV.UK, Bereavement Support Payment, checked 1 November 2026).

Bereavement Support Payment itself is not means-tested, so your own savings and earnings do not affect whether you get it or how much. It is also free of income tax: the law lists it among the social security benefits wholly exempt from tax (Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 677, checked 1 November 2026).

What “widows pension” means today

Widowed Parent’s Allowance can still only be newly claimed if your partner died before 6 April 2017 and you have a dependent child. The older Widow’s Pension and Bereavement Allowance are both closed to new claims, and GOV.UK’s old Bereavement Allowance web page now redirects straight into the Bereavement Support Payment guide (GOV.UK, bereavement allowance, checked 15 September 2026).

Widowed Parent’s Allowance stops at State Pension age or when the youngest child stops qualifying for Child Benefit. Until then, for 2026/27 it pays £156.65 a week, up from £150.90 the year before (DWP, Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027, checked 15 September 2026). If you were widowed before 6 April 2017 and think you may be entitled but have not claimed, the Bereavement Service can check.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Bereavement Support Payment is a reserved benefit administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) across Great Britain, so Scotland and Wales follow the same rules and rates as England, with no separate scheme. Northern Ireland has its own administration but matches the GB amounts, and each nation’s contact details differ slightly, set out below.

Our funeral costs page covers comparing funeral prices and what help exists if there is no money for a funeral at all.

Common questions

I'm over State Pension age and my husband recently died — can I get Bereavement Support Payment?

No. Bereavement Support Payment only goes to a widow, widower or partner who was under State Pension age when their partner died (Pensions Act 2014, s.30(1)(b)). Once you have reached State Pension age yourself, the payment to check instead is inherited State Pension, which can add an extra amount to your own State Pension.

What can I get instead if I'm over State Pension age when my partner dies?

GOV.UK says you may be able to inherit an extra payment on top of your own new State Pension if you are widowed, as long as you do not remarry or form a new civil partnership before State Pension age. What you can inherit depends on when the marriage began and when your partner reached pension age or died.

How much does Bereavement Support Payment pay in 2026/27?

The higher rate pays a £3,500 lump sum, then up to 18 monthly payments of £350; the standard rate pays a £2,500 lump sum, then up to 18 monthly payments of £100 (DWP, Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027). These figures are unchanged from 2025/26 — Bereavement Support Payment is not being uprated this year.

How long do I have to claim Bereavement Support Payment?

Usually three months from the death for the full amount, GOV.UK says, and up to 21 months in total, though the amount tapers the longer you wait. Claim within 12 months and you can still get the lump sum but fewer monthly payments; after 21 months, GOV.UK says, you usually cannot get any payment at all.

Does Bereavement Support Payment affect my other benefits?

Not for a year. GOV.UK says Bereavement Support Payment will not affect your other benefits for a year after your first payment. After that year, any money left over from the payment could count as savings for a means-tested benefit. It is not means-tested itself, so your own savings do not affect what you get.

What happened to Widow's Pension?

It closed to new claims when Bereavement Support Payment began. Widowed Parent's Allowance, the other older benefit, can still only be newly claimed if your partner died before 6 April 2017, and you have a dependent child; it pays £156.65 a week for 2026/27 (DWP, Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027).

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