Funeral Expenses Payment

A Funeral Expenses Payment is help from the government towards a funeral for someone on certain benefits who is responsible for arranging it. It covers necessary burial or cremation fees and some travel, plus up to £1,000 for other costs such as the funeral director’s fees or the coffin, and must be claimed within 6 months of the funeral. It usually does not cover the whole cost; in Scotland it is replaced by the Funeral Support Payment.

Who can claim

You, or your partner, must receive a qualifying benefit: Universal Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit or Housing Benefit, and a Support for Mortgage Interest loan may also count. You must be arranging the funeral and have been the person’s partner, the parent of a child who died, or a close relative or close friend. The funeral must be in the UK, the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland. A claim is most often refused because a closer relative who is not on benefits could have paid.

What else it pays for, and what it does not

The doctor’s certificates are paid in full where there are any, and so are death certificates and the cost of moving your loved one within the UK when the distance is over 50 miles. If they had a pre-paid funeral plan, the payment helps only with what the plan leaves out, up to £120. Money from the estate or an insurance policy is taken off what is paid. The wake, the headstone, the notices, the cars and a repatriation are not covered.

How to claim

Call the DWP Bereavement Service, which can also take a claim for Bereavement Support Payment on the same call, or post form SF200. You can claim before the funeral once you have the funeral director’s invoice or contract, and the money can then go straight to them. In Northern Ireland the payment works as in England and Wales, through the Bereavement Service on NI Direct.