Apply for Bereavement Benefits

You may be able to get a one-off payment or regular payments for 52 weeks if you have been bereaved.

Bereavement Service

Call the Social Security Agency’s Bereavement Service, free of charge, if the person who has passed away was getting a social security benefit such as State Retirement Pension, Attendance Allowance, Employment Support Allowance or Disability Living Allowance. The Bereavement Service offers a single point of contact for reporting a death to the Social Security Agency and also offers access to other benefits that you may be entitled to.  

The Bereavement Service can be easily accessed by calling the freephone number below:

• phone: 0800 085 2463

How to use this service

Use the links below to download and complete a claim form or contact the Social Security Agency for a claim form.

Download a form

Bereavement Benefit forms:

• Bereavement Benefit form BB1 (PDF 181KB)
• Bereavement Benefit form Notes (PDF 96KB)
• Help with PDF files

You make a claim by printing out a claim form and filling it in. When you have filled in the form you can either:

• post it to Bereavement Benefits
• hand it in at your nearest Social Security / Jobs and Benefits office
• Social Security / Jobs and Benefits office (contacts section)
• Bereavement Benefits (contacts section)

Important: The date the claim form is received in a Social Security Agency office is the date we can consider payment from - not the date you downloaded the claim form.

Ask for a form

You can get Bereavement Benefit forms from the Social Security Agency.  Contact one of their offices.

• Bereavement Benefits (contacts section)
• Social Security / Jobs and Benefits office (contacts section)
• Benefit Shop Castle Court (contacts section)

More useful links

Read more about

• Bereavement Allowance (money, tax and benefits section)
• Bereavement Payments (money, tax and benefits section)