Bereavement Benefit Statistics: March 2004
Bereavement Benefit
Payable to men/women widowed on or after 9 April 2001. There are three main types of Bereavement Benefit available:
Bereavement Payment
Single tax-free lump sum of £2000 payable immediately to help towards cost arising from bereavement. A widow/widower may be entitled to this if his/her late spouse had paid enough National Insurance contributions (NIC) and he/she was under 60 when her spouse died; or their husband/wife was not getting a Category A State Pension when he /she died.
Widowed Parents Allowance
Weekly benefit payable to widowed parents. A widow/widower may be entitled to this if his/her late spouse had paid enough NIC and the widow/widower is receiving Child Benefit or can be treated as entitled to Child Benefit, or the late spouse was receiving child benefit, or expecting her husbands baby or in certain cases of artifical insemmination.
The amount of Widowed Parents Allowance is based on their late spouse’s NIC record. He/she may also get benefit for their eldest dependant child and further benefit for each subsequent child and may also include an additional pension based on their late spouse’s earnings. If the late spouse was a member of a contracted-out occupational scheme or personal pension scheme, that scheme is responsible for paying the whole or part of the additional pensions.
Bereavement Allowance
Weekly benefit payable to widows/widowers without dependant children and is payable between age 45 and pensionable age. The amount payable to a widow/widower aged between 45 and 54 is related to their age at date of entitlement. The weekly rate is reduced by 7% for each year they are aged under 55, so they will get 93% rate at 54, falling to 30% at age 45. Those aged 55 or over at the date of entitlement will get their full rate of Bereavement Allowance.
The amount is based on their late spouse’s NIC record and is payable for a maximum of 52 weeks from the date of bereavement. A person cannot get Bereavement Allowance at the same time as Widowed Parents Allowance. If Widowed Parents Allowance ends within 52 weeks of bereament, Bereavement allowance is payable up to the 52nd week.
A widow/widower cannot get bereavement benefits based on their late spouse’s NIC if: he/she had been divorced from the man/woman who died, or he/she was living with the man/woman as if they were married to them but without being legally married; or he/she is living with another man/woman as if they were married to them; or he/she was in prison or held in legal custody.
Women widowed before 9 April 2001 will continue to receive their widows benefit entitlement on the arrangements that existed before that date so long as they continue to satisfy the qualifying conditions.
Source
Statistics are based on a 5% bi-annual scan of the Pensions Strategy Computer System.
Contents
| BB1 | Bereavement Benefits by rate March 2001 to March 2004 |
| BB2 | Rates of Bereavement Benefits |
| BB3 | Bereavement Benefits by category and age as at 31st March 2004 |
| BB4 | Bereavement Benefits by category and Government Office Region as at 31st March 2004 |
| BB5 | Bereavement Benefits by category and number of children as 31st March 2004 |
| BB6 | Claimants of Bereavement Benefits by Category and Gender as at 31st March 2004 |
| BB7 | Bereavement Benefits by category and amount payable as at 31st March 2004 |
| BB8 | Bereavement Benefits by local authority and gender as at 31st March 2004 (including overseas cases) |
