Bereavement Benefit

glyons

Thank you all for your kind words & advice. I did receive the £2000 bereavement grant which paid towards my husbands funeral. It's just the day to day living expenses I struggle with. I earn too much for benefit but not enough to not rely on credit cards! I moved in with my parents from Jan - May so had a reduction in my electric, when the gas bill arrived it was huge, so I rang them to explain it must be wrong, they said although my consumption was much, much less than last year, the price of oil had doubled so costs me the same!
I just wonder why 45 is the magic number - what is so different between 44?

Thanks again

p00hsticks

glyons wrote: »

I just wonder why 45 is the magic number - what is so different between 44?

I guess that if it were 44, then 43 year olds would be asking what is so different between 44 and 43 ? Unfortunately, I suspect that the age limit is fairly arbritrary - there is only so much money to go round (apparently this country is now paying out more in benefits than it raises in income tax) and so there has to be a cut off somewhere, and unfortunately it's currently 45 for Bereavement Allowance.

As far as the single person council tax discount goes, I think that's it's 25% rather than 50% to reflect the fact that although (in general) for some services the number of people in the household makes a difference, for others its the same regardless of how many people are in the house. For example a one person household will generally generate less landfill waste than one with two people, but both will have bins that need emptying every week.

Oldernotwiser

Whilst I sympathise completely with your position and with your loss, if we were going to discuss the issue objectively, I can't really see any reason for an allowance like this for anyone of any age. It seems to me to be a legacy of the days when women were "kept" by men and didn't earn their own money.