Premature Bereavement

hijimhere

As many will probably NOT know the bereavement payments have taken a battering. To recap you would need to be married or have gone through a civil service to qualify for the benefit that was taken from your deceased spouse NATIONAL INSURANCE contributions. Lets take an example of a bereaved widow/widower aged 36 with two school age children. Previously where you met the qualifying criteria you would have been paid £105 basic weekly and a small amount for each school age child which would likely make the payment £135 per week. In other words a "Widowed Parent Allowance" about £7k a year drawn from your spouse NI payments while your children are still in the education system.

In 2015 this has been wiped out and replaced by a one of payment of £10k. The bereaved under the age of 50 are 80% widows only a small proportion are widowers. As it seems that £10k is not in reality equal to your spouses contributions the similarity to MAXWELL robbing the pension funds in his company can't be ignored. The question is a proportion of NI contributions is supposed to be held for a pension that the deceased will no longer be able to claim. Therefore surely the fund ought to be part of the deceased's estate? Can anyone clarify what the situation is please? The reason I ask is that the old WPA(Widowed Parents Allowance) was a godsend to the likes of me. I took a massive drop in wages to be able to work round my kids who were 6 and 10 when Wendy died. God knows how homemaker widows who have not been in the work regime since starting a family will find themselves in forced poverty as the main breadwinner has gone. Please understand there are 30/40 thousand people die under the age of 50 each year.

kidmugsy

hijimhere wrote: »

To recap you would need to be married or have gone through a civil service to qualify for the benefit

That's understandable: to get a widow's benefit you need to be a widow.

hijimhere wrote: »

The question is a proportion of NI contributions is supposed to be held for a pension that the deceased will no longer be able to claim. Therefore surely the fund ought to be part of the deceased's estate?

As the socialist politician Nye Bevan explained decades ago "the secret of the National Insurance Fund is that there ain't no fund". The contributions get spent as they roll in.

It's all a very powerful argument for people with children to take out life insurance.

jem16

hijimhere wrote: »

In 2015 this has been wiped out and replaced by a one of payment of £10k.

I can't see where it says Widowed Parents Allowance is a one-off payment of £10k.

This says it's a maximum of £112.55pw.

https://www.gov.uk/widowed-parents-allowance/what-youll-get

Can you show us where you're getting the one-off payment of £10k from?

atush

kidmugsy wrote: »

That's understandable: to get a widow's benefit you need to be a widow.




As the socialist politician Nye Bevan explained decades ago "the secret of the National Insurance Fund is that there ain't no fund". The contributions get spent as they roll in.

It's all a very powerful argument for people with children to take out life insurance.

And it is also a very powerful argument for those who decide to have children to marry. As children of married parents tend to be better off financially in many ways (of which this is one).

greenglide

Can you show us where you're getting the one-off payment of £10k from?

There were changes to bereavement benefits in the pensions act 2014 but I suspect because this was mainly interested in the new State Pension and the bereavement benefits take effect later people have tended to overlook this.

See here http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/19/contents clauses 30, 31 and 32.

colsten

hijimhere wrote: »

As it seems that £10k is not in reality equal to your spouses contributions the similarity to MAXWELL robbing the pension funds in his company can't be ignored.

If you are talking of robbery if someone/someone's dependent(s) doesn't get back what someone paid in NI funds, you should also be talking about those people who get a lot more out of the state than they ever paid in - be it in terms of pensions, NHS treatments or other benefits. Are these people robbing the state?

p00hsticks

hijimhere wrote: »

The question is a proportion of NI contributions is supposed to be held for a pension that the deceased will no longer be able to claim. Therefore surely the fund ought to be part of the deceased's estate? Can anyone clarify what the situation is please?

NI contributions aren't some sort of personal 'fund' - if someone dies before pension age then they don't get to claim any sort of refund.

jamesd

hijimhere wrote: »

Can anyone clarify what the situation is please?

It's not entirely clear what you want clarified.

Others have handled the state payment aspect but are there any personal or work pensions involved?

I'm assuming that the deceased had not net reached 75 years of age and so any personal pensions held by them could be paid to a surviving spouse or any individual they have nominated as a lump sum tax free. workplace money purchase pensions have the same payment.

Workplace defined benefit pensions like final salary have their own rules that could pay out nothing to a full pension, you'd need to check with the pension.

For a non-spouse (meaning not married or in civil partnership with the deceased) the personal pension can be inherited as a tax free lump sum if the pension firm has an "expression of wishes" form from the deceased saying this, else they will use their judgement, normally paying a spouse and/or children.

A former spouse unless nominated in an expression of wishes form would normally receive nothing in their own right but may end up acting as trustee for amounts provided to children of the deceased.

sheramber

http://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/bereavement-and-tax/what-effect-death-state-benefits#toc-can-i-claim-any-bereavement-benefits-


What are the proposed changes to bereavement benefits?

The government has passed the Pensions Act 2014, which includes changes to bereavement benefits. The main change is to introduce a new ‘bereavement support payment’ in place of bereavement allowance, bereavement payment and widowed parent’s allowance, with effect from April 2016.

Under the proposals, if your spouse or civil partner dies on or after the date that bereavement support payment comes into effect, and you are under state pension age, you might expect the following bereavement benefits:

a one-off payment of potentially £5,000; and
a monthly allowance of potentially £400 payable for up to 12 months, if you have a dependent child.

So the value of the one-off payment, equivalent to bereavement payment, will increase substantially. The regular allowance will, however, only last for a maximum of a year following the death of your spouse or civil partner, unlike widowed parent’s allowance, which can continue until you are no longer in receipt of child benefit.

There is more information in our news article and you can see the Pensions Act 2014 on the legislation.gov.uk website. There is also information about the Pensions Act 2014 on GOV.UK.

hijimhere

kidmugsy wrote: »

That's understandable: to get a widow's benefit you need to be a widow.




As the socialist politician Nye Bevan explained decades ago "the secret of the National Insurance Fund is that there ain't no fund". The contributions get spent as they roll in.

It's all a very powerful argument for people with children to take out life insurance.

Unfortunately people see the big advertising push by most of the Insurers for life policies is viewed, as I did before my bereavement, not to worry the "STATE" will look after me. The MESSAGE that NO THEY WON'T has simply not filtered through. The same is relevant to the "I'm In" pension push. The public at large have no realised that their government have no intention of paying any "State" pension. Again a trap set to people into the private pension schemes that abound. The big picture in not AUSTERITY it is rob the poor to give to the rich.

hijimhere

jem16 wrote: »

I can't see where it says Widowed Parents Allowance is a one-off payment of £10k.

This says it's a maximum of £112.55pw.

https://www.gov.uk/widowed-parents-allowance/what-youll-get

Can you show us where you're getting the one-off payment of £10k from?

The WPA was discontinued in September 2014 when Lord Frued in the consultation process TOLD all the CHARITIES and interested parties that the government were introducing a one of payment scheme. Check out "bereavement payments" no one can claim WPA because it no longer exists. Yes they have left it on the web site so they can confuse those that don't have an interest in it. By that I mean the same as I thought my wife die, don't be ridiculous. See the reply to the other Pension act who quotes the figures £5000 + £400 x12 = £9800 ok not £10k I was £200 out sorry.