After death: This is obviously a very trying time. It is therefore sensible to get hold of the latest DSS leaflets D49 What To Do After a Death and for wives, NP45 A Guide to Widows’ Benefits. Put them to one side in a place so that they will be there if you need them.

You can get practical help and advice from a funeral director, family doctor, solicitor, church, synagogue, mosque or temple, social services department and a Citizens Advice Bureau. A health visitor or district nurse may help if the death was at home, or if it was in hospital, the ward sister or hospital chaplain could help. One of the first things you may need to do is to transfer any insurance policies into your name (eg for a car, house and belongings).

If you need support and comfort more than practical advice, there are several organisations that are more than willing to help; ranging from national organisations such as Cruse, the organisation for bereavement care (helpline: 0870 1671677), to local branches of national charities such as the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Winston's Wish offers a service to bereaved children and families (helpline: 0845 2030 405).

This information below is taken from the Former Department of Health and Social Security website page:
http://www.dss.gov.uk/publications/dss/2001/bere/index.htm

The new bereavement benefits

To get the new benefits, your late husband or wife must have paid National Insurance (NI) contributions. Your own NI contributions do not count.

You can get the new bereavement benefits if you were legally married. You cannot get bereavement benefits if:

you are divorced from your late husband or wife;
you remarry;
you are living with someone else as husband and wife without being legally married; or
you are in prison or being held in legal custody.
There will be three new bereavement benefits. These will replace the current widows’ benefits.

1 - Bereavement Payment

We will pay you a tax-free lump sum of £2,000 as soon as you are widowed, as long as you meet the conditions. This is double the existing amount of Widow’s Payment.

You will be able to get Bereavement Payment if:

your late husband or wife met the NI contribution conditions, or his or her death was caused by their job;
and
your husband or wife was not entitled to Retirement Pension when he or she died, or you were under the state pension age when your husband or wife died.

2 - Widowed Parent’s Allowance

We will pay you taxable weekly benefit, worth the same as the current Widowed Mother’s Allowance, as long as you meet the conditions. (Please see the table of current rates.)

Widowed Parent’s Allowance includes:

a basic allowance for you;
an allowance for each of your dependent children; and
additional pension (State Earnings Related Pension or SERPS), if you qualify.
You will be able to get Widowed Parent’s Allowance if:

your late husband or wife met the NI contribution conditions, or his or her death was caused by their job; and
you have a child who you get (or could get) Child Benefit for, or you are a woman expecting your late husband’s baby.
(This includes any pregnancy as a result of artificial insemination or ‘in vitro’ fertilisation as long as you were living with your husband immediately before his death.)

If your wife has died, or dies before the start date of the new bereavement benefits, you can claim Widowed Parent’s Allowance when it is introduced, as long as you meet the entitlement conditions.

3 - Bereavement Allowance

We will pay you taxable weekly benefit for 52 weeks after your husband or wife dies, as long as you are aged 45 or over, and meet the conditions. Bereavement Allowance replaces Widow’s Pension.

The amount of Bereavement Allowance will be the same as the current basic Widow’s Pension. This means that the amount you receive depends on how old you are when your husband or wife dies. (Please see the table of current rates)

If you are aged 55 or over when you are widowed, you will get the full rate of Bereavement Allowance.

If you are aged between 45 and 54, you will only get part of the full rate. This amount is fixed and will not increase with each birthday.

Unlike the current Widow’s Pension, we will not pay you SERPS.

You will be able to get Bereavement Allowance if:

your late husband or wife met the NI contribution conditions, or his or her death was caused by their job;
you were aged 45 or over when your husband or wife died; and
you do not get Widowed Parent’s Allowance.
You can download a Bereavement Benefit claim form top of page

What happens when I get to pension age?

You can claim a state Retirement Pension:

If you have got Bereavement Allowance or Widowed Parent’s Allowance at any time and have not remarried, you will now get any SERPS you can inherit from your late husband or wife.

If you did not qualify for the full rate of Bereavement Allowance because of your age, you will not qualify for the full rate of SERPS.

Important Information about Inherited State Earnings Related Pension (SERPS)

From 6 October 2002, a new rule will apply that may affect your entitlement to SERPS. We are introducing changes to reduce the maximum amount of SERPS that a widow or widower may inherit from their husband or wife from 100 per cent to 50 per cent.

Government proposals mean the following.

Nobody who is widowed before 6 October 2002 will be affected by the new rule.
If your husband or wife is due to reach state pension age before 6 October 2002, you will receive up to 100 per cent of their SERPS when they die.
If your husband or wife is due to reach state pension age after 5 October 2002 but before 6 October 2010, when they die you will receive a maximum of between 90 per cent and 60 per cent of their SERPS. The exact amount will depend on when, in this period, they reach state pension age.
If your husband or wife is due to reach state pension age on or after 6 October 2010, you will receive up to 50 per cent of their SERPS when they die.
Inherited State Second Pension

The Government plans to reform SERPS in 2002 so that it provides a more generous additional state pension for low and moderate earners, and certain carers and people with a long-term illness or disability whose working lives have been interrupted or shortened. This will be called the State Second Pension.

The maximum amount of State Second Pension that a surviving husband or wife can inherit will be 50 per cent.

Extra help

The new bereavement benefits will include extra help for people with children and for the oldest widows and widowers.

Widowed parents

£10 a week of your Widowed Parent’s Allowance or Widowed Mother’s Allowance will be ignored when your Income Support claim is worked out.

£15 a week of your bereavement benefits will be ignored when your Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Working Families’ Tax Credit is worked out.

Older widows and widowers

If you are:

aged 55 or over when the new benefits begin; and
widowed in the five years following the introduction of the new bereavement benefits,
you will be able to claim income-related benefits without having to meet the usual jobseeking requirements.

You will also get a special premium that will help you after your Bereavement Allowance stops.

The premium as of April 2000 would be worth £15.30 a week. With the normal single personal allowance (£52.20), this would bring your Income Support up to £67.50 a week (the same as the full basic rate of the current Widow’s Pension).

Further information

If you want to see the full changes to the law, you can buy the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 from The Stationery Office bookshops.

To help you understand your wider financial choices, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) produces a series of free booklets on financial matters and pensions. You can get a copy of these booklets by calling the FSA’s leaflet line or from their website.

FSA leaflet line: 0800 917 3311.

FSA public enquiries helpline: 0845 606 1234.
(Calls are charged at local rates.)

FSA website: http://www.fsa.gov.uk
For general, impartial information on pensions, you can call the DSS Pensions Info-Line or visit the DSS pensions website.

Pensions Info-Line: 0845 7 31 32 33.
(Calls are charged at local rates and the line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.)

We also provide a service for textphone users on 0845 6 04 02 10.

DSS pensions website: www.gogetpensions.gov.uk

Widows’ benefits - April 2001 rates

Widowed Mother’s Allowance

Basic allowance £72.50
Allowance for the first child £ 9.85
Allowance for every other child £11.35

Widow’s Pension

Age Rate
55 or over £72.50
54 £67.43
53 £62.35
52 £57.28
51 £52.20
50 £47.13
49 £42.05
48 £36.98
47 £31.90
46 £26.83
45 £21.75

The ages listed above mean either your age when your husband dies, or your age when you stop getting Widowed Mother’s Allowance.

These rates change every April. You can find the latest rates in leaflet GL23 Social security benefit rates, which you can get from social security offices.