benefit for a widow

londonTiger

Hi

My brother has recently passed away from a very slow cancer. Doctrs were not able to diagnose him in time. He had symptoms of fever and pneumonia. TB was also banded around. It turned out that he had cancer and the false TB diagnosis caused the medics to give him powerful TB medicne which prbably cause premature death.

We are absolutely distraught and it's a shock on his young family and dependant housewife.

Upon reviewing his income statements from his cabbing I found that his annual profit was just £6000. Which pales in comparison to his income a year before.

He was the sole breadwinner, he has 4 kids (2 over 16 in FT education). His wife has no work skills and coming to terms that their life is unsustainable.

Their income was topped up with around 2K working tax credit and 11k child tax credit.

Since the passing of my brother. She will lose the sole income and also the working tax credit. In addition to this on the child tax credit calculator I cannot see how they were receiving 11k.

Can someone explain what benefits she can get for the time being she can train and get to work. Also she is distraught and absolutely hysterical and I don't think she can go through the jobcentre motions just yet.

pathtofreedom

I'm sorry for your loss, it must be a trying time for you all.

http://www.entitledto.co.uk/ is a very helpful website to see what benefits she might be able to claim.

https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits/bereavement - some of these might help as well, including possibly helping with the funeral costs for a very basic funeral.

I'm assuming he wasn't old enough for a pension yet so this might limit some of the help she gets though. It might be worth checking the bank statements to see if it looks like they were paying for any life insurance which might help give her the money to give her some time and train in a career.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice - shelter might be able to help advise about mortgage / rent problems as well.

londonTiger

Thanks for the reply.

I am reading through all this, she is 41 year old so therefore does not qualify for bereavements benefits. The funeral costs may help.

The family live in a council house who may be sympathetic and provide easy entitlement to housing benefit. But the entitlements I'm seeing on the links you posted does not seem to be viable at all.

Thankfully we have a large extended family and we were thinking of pitching in £200 per month per household to my brothers window and his kids. Or simply break their family apart and take one child per family and my brothers widow with the youngest child - far from ideal. As it disrupts their family unit and makes them codependant on us.

pathtofreedom

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/bereavement/benefits-and-bereavement/ citizens advice as well should be able to help and have some info here. Sorry to chuck more reading your way but every little helps.

Depending on which energy supplier she is with she might be able to claim this as well, if she doesn't already to help lower the bill over winter. It isn't just for old people, it is also for some people on benefits. http://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/guides/winter-fuel-payment/#step1

Darksparkle

You say she can't claim any bereavement benefits. Can she not claim widows parent allowance?

https://www.gov.uk/widowed-parents-allowance/eligibility

What age is the youngest?

What level of education are the over 16s in?

What tax credit calculator did you use? Tax credits for 4 children would be £11,670 if income below threshold. That plus child benefit alone would give a monthly income of £1240.

londonTiger

Darksparkle wrote: »

You say she can't claim any bereavement benefits. Can she not claim widows parent allowance?

https://www.gov.uk/widowed-parents-allowance/eligibility

What age is the youngest?

What level of education are the over 16s in?

What tax credit calculator did you use? Tax credits for 4 children would be £11,670 if income below threshold. That plus child benefit alone would give a monthly income of £1240.

wow, that is pretty generous. i was wondering how my brother was claiming that when the estimate child tax credit was giving me figures in the 2-3 thousands. I double checked and it stated the figures are from TODAY till april and not a per annum figure.

Darksparkle

londonTiger wrote: »

wow, that is pretty generous. i was wondering how my brother was claiming that when the estimate child tax credit was giving me figures in the 2-3 thousands. I double checked and it stated the figures are from TODAY till april and not a per annum figure.

Thought that was the case. Many people don't notice that part.

pmlindyloo

Sorry for you loss.

If your sister in law rings the DWP Bereavement Services on 0845 606 0265 they will help sort out the benefits.

If for some reason your sister in law is not entitled to bereavement benefits then she should apply for JSA asap (can be done online)

Because of the bereavement the Job Centre should be accommodating and give her time before she has to adhere to the job seeking conditions.

Claiming JSA will give her automatic entitlement to housing benefit and council tax reduction so that is why she needs to do this asap.

Alternatively if she can get a fit note from the doctor she could claim Employment Support Allowance which will still give her automatic entitlement to HB and CT reduction.

If she does qualify for widow's parent's allowance she can still claim HB and CT reduction based on a low income.

When any benefits are claimed be sure to ask for them to be backdated on the basis that the death of her husband and her grief prevented her from claiming earlier.

GwylimT

Was he not insured?

If he was paying into a work/private pension she may be entitled to the money he had paid in. There may also be a death in service payment if he was working.

Topcat1982

Sorry for your loss.

Could you be specific about the ages of all the children and type of education? (college/university...)

bossymoo

Widowed parents allowance may be payable (assuming they were married?) while there are children of school age. Amounts vary as it is based on his NI contributions. There is a "tell us once" service that I found extremely useful when my husband died.

When she is feeling up to it she will need to look into what savings and pension arrangements he had.

Would make things much easier for her if he left a will?