Father passed away, what is my mother entitled to? Advice needed please

lighton

i just found this i dont know if will help or not. Maybe go to your local cab they may have more up to date information on all this. Things seemed to have changed a lot.http://www.insolvencyhelpline.co.uk/debt_factsheets/what_to_do_about_debt_when_someone_dies.php#11

Oldernotwiser

I'm going to shut up now, I'm only muddying the waters! Note to self; don't post late at night!

TraceyB_2

Hi DSmiffy,

Sorry to hear about your loss - I'm in a similar situation at the moment with my Mum - my step dad passed away a couple of weeks ago.

One thing that we wasn't aware of was a Bereavement Benefit - my Mum is getting £2,000 (I'm not totally sure if this was a rough amount as she hasnt had anything through yet).

We knew nothing about this until we took back my step dads blue badge! We took this in to the Jobcentre near us and they told my Mum about it.

Not sure how you are entitled to it, my parents arent on any benefits or anything and my Mum has a personal pension so I dont think its means tested.

Good luck with all the paperwork at the Banks, pensions etc.

tom9980

Bereavement benefit info is here

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/benefits/benefits_and_bereavement.htm

savemoney

DSmiffy I am sorry to hear of your loss. Best wishes

nm8553

Suggest that you look specifically at pension credit if your mum's state pension is below £124.05 per week (which it is for many). As she is over 65 she may also be entitled to the guarantee credit (an extra £19.71pw)

Dustykitten

I did not use a solicitor to sort out Dad's estate - there is loads of help on the web and the library had a couple of really good books - one was by which? Either the hospital or the registrar gave us a form for Social Security and the other benefits all kicked in automatically and really quickly, we got the £2000 aswell.

DSmiffy

TraceyB wrote: »

Hi DSmiffy,

Sorry to hear about your loss - I'm in a similar situation at the moment with my Mum - my step dad passed away a couple of weeks ago.

One thing that we wasn't aware of was a Bereavement Benefit - my Mum is getting £2,000 (I'm not totally sure if this was a rough amount as she hasnt had anything through yet).

We knew nothing about this until we took back my step dads blue badge! We took this in to the Jobcentre near us and they told my Mum about it.

Not sure how you are entitled to it, my parents arent on any benefits or anything and my Mum has a personal pension so I dont think its means tested.

Good luck with all the paperwork at the Banks, pensions etc.

Hi traceyb, thanks for the info on bereavement benefit. I will be looking into this on monday.

peediedj

Bereavement Payment

Single tax-free lump sum of £2000 payable immediately to help towards cost arising from bereavement. A widow/widower may be entitled to this if his/her late spouse had paid enough National Insurance contributions (NIC) and he/she was under 60 when her spouse died; or their husband/wife was not getting a Category A State Pension when he /she died.

homeworkgirl

Hi there, very sorry to hear about your father. No offence meant here, but I presume your parents were legally married? If not, this makes a big difference to what your Mum can claim, I found this out the hard way when I lost my partner last year. I could not claim widow's pension, bereavement benefit or anything like that, it was just a funeral payment i could have claimed but luckily my family helped out with the funeral costs. The benefits people do not recognise "cohabiting" couples who lived together for 20 years plus when it comes to paying out after death, but they do pay out to "civil partners". It doesn't make sense to me. Anyway, i hope you manage to get things sorted ok, it does take quite a while.