According to new figures obtained by BBC Radio 4’s Money Box, around 12,000 unmarried parents whose partners have died are at risk of missing out on about £175m worth of benefit payments. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimates that around 17,000 widowed parents are entitled to bereavement support payments following the changes in the law which last year granted cohabiting couples with the same right as married or civil partnership couples. However, the statistics show that only 5,000 people have claimed so far, which means around £175m is waiting to be claimed. Interested parties have until 8 February to register for backdated claims worth thousands of pounds going back several years.
If partners with children are married or in a civil partnership, and one of them dies, the surviving partner is entitled to bereavement support. However, unmarried parents previously missed out on such support. The law changed last year following a case brought forward by Siobhan McLaughlin in Supreme Court who argued that it was against human rights law to deny such payments to unmarried parents. The eligibility criteria for bereavement support payment requires that you must have children under the age of 18 living with you on 30 August 2018. If they do, then you can check whether you are eligible for the payment via government service.
The executive director at the Childhood Bereavement Network, Alison Penny, said that the amount of financial support available may vary depending on individual circumstances but expects it to be of “many thousands of pounds”. However, she emphasized that the significance of the payment is symbolic as well stating: “There’s a real symbolic importance to these payments as well. It’s also about the recognition that these children – their grief matters just as much as anyone else.”
Janet Cowden’s story illustrates the stark consequences of the previous system which has led to vulnerable parents being left to shoulder the burden of raising children alone. Cowden lost her fiancé Paul Shoesmith in a motorcycle accident during the Isle of Man TT races in 2016. Since they were only engaged at the time and not married, Cowden did not qualify for any widowed support which left her to raise their two young children, Jenson and Hudson, aged two and three alone. Following the law change, Cowden was eligible to claim the bereavement support payment, and she received a lump sum payment of thousands of pounds as well as hundreds of pounds in monthly support. She highlighted that beyond the financial benefit, the recognition and acknowledgement of her situation were the most significant elements of the support that made her feel like part of a family again
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