Can I get help from the DWP (Social Fund)?

If you are on any of the following benfits you mayu be eligible for support from the DWP:

Universal Credit
Income Support
Income-based Jobseekers’s Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Pension Credit
Housing Benefit
The disability or severe disability element of Working Tax Credit
Child Tax Credit

You might also be eligible if you’re getting a Support for Mortgage Interest loan.

You can still claim Funeral Expenses Payment if you’ve applied for these benefits and you’re waiting to hear about your claim.

How it works

Your Funeral Expenses Payment will be deducted from any money you get from the deceased’s estate.

The estate includes any money or property they had but not a house or personal things left to a widow, widower or surviving civil partner.

What you’ll get

Funeral Expenses Payment can help pay for some of the costs of the following:

• burial fees for a particular plot

• cremation fees, including the cost of the doctor’s certificate

• travel to arrange or go to the funeral

• the cost of moving the body within the UK, if it’s being moved more than 50 miles

• death certificates or other documents

You can also get up to £1,000 for any other funeral expenses, such as funeral director’s fees, flowers or the coffin.

The payment will not usually cover all of the costs of the funeral.

How much you get depends on your circumstances. This includes any other money that’s available to cover the costs, for example from an insurance policy or the deceased person’s estate.

If you would like to make a claim we always advise that you talk to us about it before making the application. If you want to make a claim please visit the government website here: https://www.gov.uk/funeral-payments/how-to-claim

Bereavement Support Payment is not means-tested. This means what you earn or how much you have in savings will not affect what you get.

When your partner died, you must have been:

• under State Pension age

• living in the UK or a country that pays bereavement benefits

• married to your partner, in a civil partnership with them, or living with them as if you were married

Your partner must have either:

• paid a certain amount of Class 1 or Class 2 National Insurance contributions in any one tax year since 6 April 1975

• died because of an accident at work or a disease caused by work

You can still make a claim if you’re not sure whether your partner paid enough National Insurance contributions. The Bereavement Service will let you know.

You cannot claim Bereavement Support Payment if you’re in prison.

When you need to make your claim

You usually need to make a claim within 21 months of your partner’s death.

If it’s been over 21 months since your partner’s death, you may still be able to make a claim if their cause of death was only recently confirmed. Call the Bereavement Service helpline for help.

How soon you make your claim can also affect how much money you’ll get. You usually need to make a claim within 3 months of your partner’s death to get the full amount of payments.

If your partner died before 6 April 2017, you may be able to get Widowed Parent’s Allowance instead.

If you were living with your partner as if you were married

Unless you’re applying for a backdated payment, one of the following must have applied when your partner died:

• you were getting Child Benefit for a child that lived with you

• you were told by the Child Benefit Office that you were entitled to Child Benefit for a child that lived with you, even if you chose not to get it

• you were pregnant

If your partner was getting or entitled to Child Benefit instead, you’ll need to make a new claim for Child Benefit in your name before you can apply for Bereavement Support Payment.

If you or the person who has died served in the Armed Forces then the SSAFA may be able to assist with the funeral costs.

The local branch can be contacted at: ewm.region@ssafa.org.uk / 02045669116

You may also be able to take what is called a ‘Budgeting Loan’ from the Government, for more information please visit: https://www.gov.uk/budgeting-help-benefits

You may be eligible for finance from Funeral Safe, you can check here: https://www.funeralsafe.co.uk/ or call 0330 002 0875