Bereavement Support Payment Calculator (UK)
Check whether you qualify for Bereavement Support Payment, which rate you would get, and how much of it you may already have lost by not claiming yet.
Your details
Unmarried partners can claim, but only if the children condition below also applied.
This decides the rate, and for unmarried partners it decides eligibility altogether. Being entitled counts even if you never claimed.
This is judged at the date of death, not today.
They needed to have paid Class 1 or Class 2 contributions in any single tax year since 6 April 1975. Most people who have ever worked in the UK meet this.
Claiming late costs money. Enter 0 if it was within the last month.
Your results
Your figures appear here as you fill in your details.
This calculator is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or legal advice, nor a decision on your entitlement. Only the Department for Work and Pensions can decide a claim. If you are close to the three-month, twelve-month or twenty-one-month point, claim first and check the detail afterwards.
How this works
Bereavement Support Payment replaced Widowed Parent's Allowance, Bereavement Allowance (what most people still call the widow's pension) and the Bereavement Payment. It is not means-tested and does not affect most other benefits for the first year, so having savings or an income does not rule you out.
There are two rates.
- Higher rate: £3,500 as a first payment, then £350 a month for 18 months. This applies if you were getting Child Benefit for a child living with you, were entitled to it even if you never claimed, or were pregnant when your partner died.
- Standard rate: £2,500 as a first payment, then £100 a month for 18 months. This applies to married and civil partners where the children condition does not.
The timing rules are where money gets lost.
- Claim within 3 months of the death and you get everything: the full first payment and all 18 monthly payments.
- Claim between 3 and 12 months and you still get the first payment, but monthly payments are only backdated three months. Every further month of delay is one payment gone.
- Claim after 12 months and the first payment is lost completely — £2,500 or £3,500 — with only the remaining monthly payments left.
- Claim after 21 months and you usually get nothing at all.
That is the arithmetic behind the figures above: monthly payments due are 21 minus the number of months since the death, capped at 18.
Assumptions
- Rates are the 2026/27 figures published on gov.uk and are not uprated annually in the way most benefits are — they have been at these levels since 2017.
- Unmarried partners became eligible for deaths on or after 6 April 2017 following a law change in February 2023, but only where the children condition applied. If your partner held the Child Benefit, you need to claim it in your own name before applying.
- The National Insurance condition is met if your partner paid Class 1 or Class 2 contributions in any single tax year since 6 April 1975, or died because of an accident or disease caused by their work. Most people who have worked in the UK qualify, which is why "I do not know" is treated here as a probable yes rather than a no.
- Reaching State Pension age yourself within 18 months of the death can cut short the monthly payments. This tool does not model that.
- You cannot claim while in prison.
- This is a check, not a claim. Claims are made through the Bereavement Service by phone or on gov.uk, and the Bereavement Service can also tell you what else you may be entitled to in the same call.
Last updated . Figures are UK-specific — check current rates on GOV.UK before acting.