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Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
Here for you this Easter
Our Funeral Plan team is available Friday & Monday, 10am–4pm. Call us for support.
Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
Here for you this Easter
Our Funeral Plan team is available Friday & Monday, 10am–4pm. Call us for support.
When we lose someone close to us, it can feel overwhelming. Adjusting to the loss is hard enough at the best of times, but when we are also faced with organising and paying for their funeral (along with tackling all of the associated admin), it can quickly bury us within ourselves, and make us feel helpless. If you are asking yourself, “What bereavement support is available to me?”, then this article aims, among others, to answer that question.
We’d also just like to recognise that, if you’re reading this, we understand that you could be facing some difficulty. We see the potential difficulty of your situation, and want to tell you that we can help. Aura is the UK’s top-rated provider of ‘Cremation Services’ on Trustpilot, with a score of 4.9/5 stars. We offer our funerals to those seeking to organise a direct cremation in the near future, or those considering a prepaid funeral plan for their own future funeral.
There are different kinds of bereavement support available to you, if you are struggling. This support can come in the form of financial assistance, as well as emotional and practical support. When we are struggling to cope with the death of a parent, for example, or to deal with the unexpected death of a loved one of any kind, we can become vulnerable. We can find the completion of any task daunting at a time when we suddenly have a lot of documentation to acquire and complete, and some important financial and personal decisions to make.
From our employer, we can seek compassionate leave for a funeral or simply to begin adjusting to a loss; we can find financial and mental-health support from the government; and we can also turn to charitable organisations for support too. This network of support can make coping with grief easier.
The government (through the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)) provides financial support to eligible families via two schemes: the Bereavement Support Payment and the Funeral Expenses Payment. If you live in Scotland, you can apply for the funeral support payment on the Scottish government website.
If you’re interested in the Bereavement Support Payment (BSP), but have never heard of it before, you may be wondering what it is and how it works.
The BSP is a form of financial support offered by the UK government to widows, widowers, surviving civil partners or cohabiting partners. If your application is successful, you can receive a one-time lump-sum, and, depending on your eligibility, up to 18 monthly payments thereafter. Unlike other forms of bereavement-related financial support from the government, such as the Funeral Expenses Payment, it doesn’t need to be spent on funeral expenses specifically; you can use it for whatever you need. In effect, it is a financial cushion available to those who’ve recently lost a spouse or someone else upon whom they were dependent for income.
If you successfully apply for the BSP, how much you receive will depend on whether or not you were married to the person who has died. Please note, the amounts specified below depend on your eligibility; it’s not certain you will receive the full amounts stated.
Widows / Widowers
If you don’t have children, you could get
If you are pregnant at the time of the death or if you have children under 20 and are entitled to Child Benefit, you could get
If you live together, have a family but were unmarried
You could get:
The number of monthly payments you receive may change depending on when your partner died. Note that, if you had children together, you can still claim the BPS even if you weren’t married.
The Bereavement Support Payment can relieve some of the anxiety and stress that a death in the family can cause – particularly if the person who died was the main breadwinner in the household.
In order to be eligible for the BPS, put simply, you will need to have been bereaved of your spouse or your civil partner, or co-habiting partner. The ability for co-habiting partners to claim the BPS is fairly recent; the law has recently been expanded to include them, so long as they had children together.
According to the bereavement charity Sue Ryder, you are eligible for the BPS if:
Your spouse has died and:
Your partner died and you were not married and:
Pensioners are not currently eligible for the BPS, as you will need to have been below the state pension age when your partner died in order to apply.
There are a number of steps to complete in order to apply for the BPS.
In order to apply for the BPS, head to the UK government website. It should take around 15 minutes to apply, and it can be done online, or over the phone. In order to apply, you will need the following information:
On top of this, you may find that you will need to provide other information proving your relationship with the person you have died, such as marriage documents, civil partnership paperwork, or evidence that shows you were living together, such as joint account bank statements. Be prepared also to share a copy of the Death Certificate of the person who has died, confirming the date, fact and cause of their death.
The length of time it takes to receive your payment could vary, but the DWP aims to pay you as soon as possible. It should be possible to receive your lump-sum payment within a few weeks. You should look to apply within three months of your partner’s death in order to receive the full payment.
Naturally, this process would be overwhelming at the best of times, but if you are coping with a bereavement, it can be even more confusing. You might consider starting a funeral checklist in order to keep yourself organised.
If you feel you need support with the application, you can get help from the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, or from family and friends.
There are other options available for financial support besides the BSP.
If you are simply wondering how to pay for a funeral, rather than how to secure longer-term support, then the government also offers the Funeral Expenses Payment. It needs to be spent on funeral-related expenses, and allows eligible families the chance to claim funeral costs back.
If you and your partner are pensioners, and your partner was claiming a pension before they died, then you may be able to get extra payments from their state pension. The same can also be said of any private pensions that they may have had, but it will depend on the provider.
Furthermore, British military veterans could be eligible for burial benefits and other forms of funeral support; you can learn more about what to do when a veteran dies on the UK government website.
If you are looking for emotional or practical support with the impact of bereavement, there are other options out there for you too. The NHS offers mental health services which can teach you how to cope with grief and to care for your mental health.
Sue Ryder, the bereavement support charity, offers all kinds of guidance on related matters, from financial to local support groups. They can sign-post you towards local death cafes near you, which many people find a productive way to work through the emotional burden of grief. There are also Cruse Bereavement Support, and Quaker Social Action, which can also help. Whatever your needs, there is support out there for you.
Whilst there are lots of resources and support out there for those who are going through a bereavement and struggling to cope with their grief, it doesn’t mean that this is easy. Whether a close family member, or coping with a bereavement in the workplace, our grief can assail us. Many of us become completely overwhelmed by our grief, and end up suffering a mental health crisis.
We may be experiencing a mental health crisis if we begin to feel completely hopeless through the recent change in our circumstances, or if we feel unable to cope with the situation. Grief can exacerbate existing mental health problems which you might be dealing with, so it can be helpful to keep an awareness of your own mental health condition.
A mental health crisis can manifest itself in many different ways, and it may look different for each person. Some signs that you could be experiencing a mental health crisis are:
If you need urgent support, there are 24/7 helplines which you can call, such as Samaritans – a suicide prevention charity. You can call 111 to speak to NHS 24 and request an urgent GP appointment, too, if you feel you need to speak to a mental health professional.
For immediate relief, simple meditation practices can be very helpful. They let you ground yourself – feeling your feet on the floor and giving you a sense of stability – and teach you how to gain control of your breath. We often experience racing thoughts and an increased heart-rate during these difficult moments, and focusing on your breath can help to give you a sense of immediate control over yourself.
You can get quick and easy access to guides on the breathing techniques and meditation, like HeadSpace or Calm. Apps like these often have specific, guided meditations addressing bereavement, which many find useful for gaining a sense of peace and composure.
If you recognise or suspect that you may be suffering a mental health crisis, make sure not to suffer alone. Reach out to friends and family, bereavement support groups, or community and religious networks to make sure that you are connecting to people and talking about what’s on your mind.
There are a few typical questions which people tend to have about the Bereavement Support Payment.
The BPS is not taxable. It is also not counted when considering your entitlement to other means-tested benefits.
No, you can only apply one time. Once it has been granted, and you have received the benefit, you cannot receive a second one for another bereavement.
If you feel the wrong decision has been reached about a benefit application, you can request mandatory reconsideration. You are normally able to do this if you feel:
When facing the grief caused by a bereavement, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. We hope that by reading this article, you now feel like there is some support available for you. But, if you have any questions whatsoever about funeral arranging, or its associated costs, you need only let us know; we are ready to help.
Our Aura Angels are here to support you with anything you may need when the time comes to begin planning a funeral, or to put a prepaid funeral plan into action. From helping you to coordinate paperwork, to making arrangements, and lending a compassionate ear, we’ll be here to help you in your time of need. Get in touch with our team and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.
