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.