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’s 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’s benefits:
- widow’s payment, a one off tax-free lump sum payable immediately after death. This was abolished on 9 April 2001.
- widowed mother’s allowance (see EIM76177)
- widow’s pension (see EIM76178).
Widow’s 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’s allowance or widow’s pension before that date continue to receive those benefits.