EIM76176 - Social security benefits: widow's benefits: summary

Part 9 Chapter 5 ITEPA 2003

Before 9 April 2001 when a husband died, his widow and dependent children were entitled to claim widow鈥檚 benefits as long as:

  • she was not divorced from him at the date of death
  • she was not living with him without being legally married to him
  • she was not living with another man.

There were three types of widow鈥檚 benefits:

  • widow鈥檚 payment, a one off tax-free lump sum payable immediately after death. This was abolished on 9 April 2001.
  • widowed mother鈥檚 allowance (see EIM76177)
  • widow鈥檚 pension (see EIM76178).

Widow鈥檚 benefits were replaced by bereavement benefits (see EIM76170) for new claimants on or after 9 April 2001, but widows in receipt of either widowed mother鈥檚 allowance or widow鈥檚 pension before that date continue to receive those benefits.