Who qualifies?

Eligibility for Bereavement Support Payment turns on a small number of conditions, and every one of them must be met. GOV.UK states them plainly, and this page follows that order: your age when your partner died, where you were living, your relationship to the person who died, and your late partner's National Insurance record. If you are unsure about any one condition, GOV.UK's own advice is to claim anyway and let the Bereavement Service check. That advice matters, because the National Insurance condition in particular is not something most people can verify from their own records.

1. You were under State Pension age when your partner died

The test is applied at the date of death, not at the date you claim. If you were already over State Pension age when your partner died, you cannot claim Bereavement Support Payment, even if you have never claimed a State Pension. State Pension age is not a single fixed age for everyone; it depends on your date of birth, and GOV.UK has a State Pension age calculator. If you reach State Pension age during the 18 months after the death, the monthly payments may stop early, as explained on the rates and duration page. Delaying your State Pension does not extend Bereavement Support Payment.

2. You were living in the UK, or in a country that pays bereavement benefits

At the time of the death you must have been living in the United Kingdom, or in a country that pays bereavement benefits under an agreement with the UK. The United Kingdom here means England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. People living abroad should contact the International Pension Centre rather than the usual helpline; the how to claim page gives the number. Northern Ireland has its own route through nidirect, although the rules are equivalent. Residence is about where you were living, not about nationality on its own, but individual cases involving recent moves or time abroad can be complicated, and the Bereavement Service is the right place to ask.

3. Your relationship to the person who died

You must have been married to your partner, in a civil partnership with them, or living with them as if you were married when they died. Same-sex marriages and civil partnerships are included on the same terms. The third category, living together as if married, has applied since 9 February 2023, following the Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2023. Before that date, unmarried cohabiting partners could not claim at all. For cohabiting claims there is an extra condition, explained on the children page: unless you are applying for a backdated payment, you must have been getting Child Benefit for a child who lived with you, have been told you were entitled to Child Benefit for such a child even if you chose not to receive it, or have been pregnant when your partner died. If Child Benefit was in your late partner's name, you need to make a new Child Benefit claim in your own name before you can apply for Bereavement Support Payment.

4. Your late partner's National Insurance contributions

Your partner must either have paid a certain amount of Class 1 or Class 2 National Insurance contributions in any one tax year since 6 April 1975, or have died because of an accident at work or a disease caused by work. In DWP guidance this contribution condition is described as at least 25 weeks of contributions in a single tax year. You do not need to prove this yourself from old payslips; the Department checks its own records. If your partner was self-employed, Class 2 contributions count. If your partner died because of their work, the contribution condition does not block the claim. And if you are not sure whether the condition is met, claim anyway: the worst outcome of a claim that fails is a refusal you can challenge, while the worst outcome of never claiming is losing the payment altogether as the months pass.

Who cannot claim

You cannot claim Bereavement Support Payment if you are in prison. That exclusion applies even if every other condition is met. There is no equivalent exclusion for being in hospital, for receiving other benefits, or for having savings or a high income, because the payment is not means-tested. There is also no requirement that you arranged the funeral, paid for the funeral, or were financially dependent on your partner in any particular way beyond the conditions above. Financial dependence is not a separate test for this benefit.

Sources: GOV.UK, Bereavement Support Payment (eligibility, what you will get, how to claim), checked 25 October 2026; DWP Bereavement Support Payment claim notes; House of Commons Library, Bereavement Support Payment (CBP-7887).