How to claim the Funeral Expenses Payment

Funerals cost thousands of pounds, and the Funeral Expenses Payment exists so that a family on a low income does not go into debt to hold one. It is not a loan and it is not means-tested on your savings. It is tied to the benefits you already receive, and if you receive one of them and you are the person arranging the funeral, you can claim.

This is the claim, in order. If you live in Scotland the equivalent is the Funeral Support Payment from Social Security Scotland, with similar rules and its own form, and the section at the end covers the differences.

Who can claim the Funeral Expenses Payment

Three things have to be true.

You, or your partner, receive a qualifying benefit. The list is Universal Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, and you may also qualify if you receive a Support for Mortgage Interest loan. You can claim while you are waiting to hear about a claim for one of them.

You are arranging the funeral and you have a qualifying relationship to the person who died. That means you were their partner, or the parent of a child who died, or a close relative or close friend, where it was reasonable for you to take on the funeral rather than someone else. If there is a closer relative who is not on benefits, the DWP may decide it was reasonable for them to pay instead, and that is the commonest reason a claim is refused.

The funeral is in the UK, or in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland.

What the payment covers

Two parts.

The necessary costs are paid in full: the cremation fee or the burial fee, including the cost of a plot, the doctor’s certificates where there are any, and the reasonable cost of moving your loved one within the UK if they died more than 50 miles from where the funeral is.

Then there is up to £1,000 towards everything else, the funeral director’s fees, the coffin, the flowers. That is a ceiling, not a fixed sum, and it is rarely enough to cover the whole of a traditional funeral. It is close to enough for a direct cremation, which is why so many claims are for one.

Money from the estate or from an insurance policy is deducted from what the DWP pays, and if your loved one had a pre-paid funeral plan the payment only helps with items the plan does not cover, up to £120.

What it does not cover

The wake, the headstone, the notices in the paper and the cars are not in the payment. Neither is a funeral abroad outside the countries listed above, and neither is a repatriation. If your loved one is being taken home to another country, who pays for a repatriation is the guide for that.

How to claim, step by step

Step 1: check the deadline

You have six months from the date of the funeral. You can claim before the funeral, as soon as you have the funeral director’s invoice or a signed contract, and claiming early means the payment can go straight to the funeral director.

Step 2: gather the documents

You will need your National Insurance number and the details of the benefit you receive, the death certificate or the registrar’s reference, the funeral director’s itemised invoice or contract, and any documents about money that will come from the estate, a funeral plan or an insurance policy.

Step 3: claim by phone or by post

The quickest route is the DWP Bereavement Service by phone. The agent completes the claim with you and can take a claim for Bereavement Support Payment at the same time if that applies to you. The other route is claim form SF200, downloaded from GOV.UK or requested by phone, and posted.

Step 4: wait for the decision

The DWP writes to tell you how much it will pay. If you claimed before the funeral, the payment can go directly to the funeral director; if you have already paid, it goes to you. If the claim is refused, the letter says why, and you can ask for the decision to be looked at again.

If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland

In Scotland the payment is the Funeral Support Payment, run by Social Security Scotland. The qualifying benefits are the same and the deadline is also six months from the funeral, but the amount towards other costs is set separately, so check the current figure on mygov.scot. In Northern Ireland the Funeral Expenses Payment applies as in England and Wales, claimed through the Bereavement Service on NI Direct.

What it costs to hold a funeral, and how the payment fits

A basic funeral in the UK costs several thousand pounds and a direct cremation less than half of that; how much does a funeral cost in the UK has the figures and where they come from. With the cremation fee paid in full and up to £1,000 towards the rest, a direct cremation is the one kind of funeral the payment can cover almost entirely. Ours is £1,295, fixed, and we give you the itemised invoice the claim needs on the day you instruct us.

The claim is one of the eight steps in what to do when someone dies, and it sits beside the funeral it pays for.