Have children and have lost your unmarried, co-habiting partner? You may now be eligible to claim

Sandbain

Partner died 2015. We had 2 children 10 and 14. My sister came across the article on widowed parents allowance criteria having changed this year and suggested I try and claim to see if I was entitled to any back pay.
I sent off the form 2 weeks later I received a text saying they had received my application. Was waiting for the rejection letter but 1 week after the text £33000  was deposited into my bank account!!! I will have to pay the tax due on it but even so.This is life changing for me I can pay off my mortgage with some to spare.
Thankyou to this site.

sharonB

My partner died in 2005, and we had 3 children, the youngest was only a few months old, and is still in full time education till 2024, so I applied only to be told I'm not eligible for anything as claims are only backdated to 2018 and by then I have my current partner living with me. Gutted again as all those years I missed out and struggled on my own don't count. 

Jyana

sharonB said:

My partner died in 2005, and we had 3 children, the youngest was only a few months old, and is still in full time education till 2024, so I applied only to be told I'm not eligible for anything as claims are only backdated to 2018 and by then I have my current partner living with me. Gutted again as all those years I missed out and struggled on my own don't count. 

Were you not eligible to claim Widowed Parent's Allowance back in 2005 up until you lived with your current partner? 

sharonB

Nope they said claims can only be backdated to 2018 when the legislation changed

15184474

Hi,
This is why I started my petition to Parliament. My petition - Allow all parents of dependent children to access Bereavement Support Payment.

ALL bereaved families should be supported. If a parent of dependent children dies and you were not married or living together, you get NO Bereavement Support Payment. How is this fair?

Discrimination against parents who are not married or living together needs to stop.

ALL bereaved families should have access to the same support.

Please could you take a couple of minutes to read and sign my petition. I have only just joined on here, so I can’t post the link. It is on the petition to Parliament website- Allow all parents of dependant children access to Bereavement Support Payment.

Jyana

sharonB said:

Nope they said claims can only be backdated to 2018 when the legislation changed

Widowed Parent's Allowance was the benefit available back in 2005 for someone who's partner died, rather than Bereavement Support Payment which was available from 2018.

sharonB

Jyana said:

sharonB said:

Nope they said claims can only be backdated to 2018 when the legislation changed

Widowed Parent's Allowance was the benefit available back in 2005 for someone who's partner died, rather than Bereavement Support Payment which was available from 2018.

Yep that's what was the application was for. 

sheramber

Jyana said:

sharonB said:

Nope they said claims can only be backdated to 2018 when the legislation changed

Widowed Parent's Allowance was the benefit available back in 2005 for someone who's partner died, rather than Bereavement Support Payment which was available from 2018.

You had to be eligible for Widowed Parents Allowance at 30 August 2018 to claim the allowance.  
 This crucial date has been omitted in much of the information given out,

Dazed_and_C0nfused

calcotti said:

michelefauk said:

 My partner died in 2016 and our daughter was 11 at the time. I applied for backdated WPA following the new legislation. I received £33000 in backdated payment lump sum and am receiving £324 fortnightly although this will be ending in August as my daughter is going to uni in September. I have no idea of the tax implications which frightens me a lot, I’m worried they are going to come back and ask for 20% of the lump sum back for tax! I haven’t received anything from HMRC about it.  

I can't find any guidance of how it will be taxed.

It is definitely taxable (as you are aware) but it could make a big difference whether it is all taken account  in the tax year it is received or treated as received in the years it would have been made had you been able to claim in 2016.

For State Pension, to the best of knowledge, arrears would be treated as if payment had been paid in the tax year that the amounts should have been paid. Hopefully they will do the same for WPA. 

It may be sensible to inform HMRC about the payment you have received. Until the taxation is known it would be sensible to set 20% aside.

There is some useful information from LITRG in this paper.

This seems to suggest that if notification hasn't yet been made by HMRC then only tax due for 2019-20 tax year will be collected.  That's assuming they do send notification of the tax owed between now and the end of the current tax year.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.litrg.org.uk/sites/default/files/210917%20Bereavement%20remedial%20order%20BRIEFING%20FINAL%202021.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiCzJnymJOAAxVX0QIHHdh5BKoQFnoECCAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw08NROLgBHGbC6Tz_rYtX0s

Sadface2

My previous comment re-posted below for this thread:
I sadly lost my partner in 2002, whilst I was carrying our baby and when our lovely baby was born I was unable to claim any benefit, as we were unmarried. This was a very difficult time for me, both emotionally and financially and coming across the new ruling this year had provided some hope that I could claim back some of the funds, which I believed I was entitled.
After making the claim, which I came across whilst watching one of Martin's ITV programmes, it transpires from DWP that I am not eligible, as my life had moved forward and I re-married and had another child before 30th August 2018 (the reason for DWPs decline)!
Although I am grateful that my life moved forward, surely the ruling should cover the period when I was on my own and up to the point I co-habited with my new partner? If I was married at the time during the pregnancy, I would have received the WPA benefit, which would have been so helpful at the time!
Any thoughts around this? Is it worthy of an appeal?
I welcome any thoughts.
Thanks