Bereaved families take campaign to Parliament

June 2026

On Saturday, 6 June 2026, a group of bereaved families descended on Parliament Square to demand urgent changes to Bereavement Support Payments. Around 100 widowed parents, bereaved children, grandparents, friends and supporters travelled from across the country carrying banners and placards and braving torrential rain to call for reform to the current system.

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Leading the Widows Fight campaign is WAY member Caroline Booth, whose husband Steve died from cancer in May 2025 after 25 years of marriage. Like many widowed people, Caroline was shocked to discover that financial support for bereaved families ends after just 18 months. She has been put forward for a Mandy Burrows Award by fellow WAY members in recognition of her tireless campaigning.

“We’re here to ask the Government to reform Bereavement Support Payment,” Caroline told protesters.

“As we all know, it was changed in 2017. Before then, you received it for as long as your children were in receipt of Child Benefit, and now it’s 18 months. So it’s the equivalent of a 92% cut in some cases.”

Campaigners are calling not only for support to be paid for longer, but also for payments to be increased in line with inflation. Bereavement Support Payment has remained frozen since it replaced the more generous Widowed Parent’s Allowance in 2017, which was payable to bereaved families with children for potentially up to 18 years.

“Families shouldn’t be in that position”

Holly, a member of the Widows Fight campaign group, spoke about the impact of this lack of support for bereaved families.

“Their kids are dealing with enough emotionally,” she said. “To be in a position where they’re worrying about where their next meals are coming from, or if they’re going to have to move out of the homes that they shared with the parent that they’ve lost. Those memories are tied up in those places. Families shouldn’t be in that position.”

One of the most powerful moments of the day came from Abby, whose father died when she was just seven months old. Because her father died before the 2017 changes, Abby’s family received support under the previous system.

“We now get about £400 a month,” she explained. “It’s been really helpful because it’s quite a big amount of our rent.”

Abby knows that families who have been bereaved since 2017 receive support for a much shorter length of time.

“It’s just really unfair…” she said.

“Where is the safety net?”

Many of the widowed men and women who attended the protest spoke of partners who had worked and paid National Insurance for decades, believing their contributions would help protect them and their children if the worst happened.

Rachel, whose husband died after more than 40 years of work and National Insurance contributions, described the reality faced by many widowed families.

“My husband paid National Insurance his entire adult working life,” she said. “My income has halved, but my expenses have not. Where is that safety net?”

The campaign is not simply about money. It is about recognising the unique challenges faced by families after the death of a parent. Supporting grieving children, maintaining employment, managing household finances and navigating the endless administrative burden that follows a death can be overwhelming.

Rosie Moss, WAY member and host of the podcast Widowed AF, said:

“One of the biggest challenges we face is that people assume this is an issue that affects somebody else. Widowhood simply isn’t on your radar until it’s too late. Nobody standing in Parliament Square expected their life to turn out this way. They didn’t expect to lose the person they loved. They didn’t expect their children to grow up without a parent. Yet here they are.”

“The stark reality is that if you’re in a long-term relationship, one of you is likely to be widowed one day,” she added. “Cancer, accidents, heart attacks and sudden illness don’t discriminate. This could happen to any of us at any time. That’s why this campaign matters. If it hasn’t affected you personally, it almost certainly affects somebody you know.”

“We may be a relatively small group of voices, but we are a mighty one,” she said. “And our voices, and the voices of our children, deserve to be heard.”

How you can help 

WAY Widowed and Young has been standing up for bereaved families for the past 29 years, successfully campaigning to extend bereavement payments to cohabiting couples with dependent children in 2023. We would also like to see those payments extended to couples without dependent children too. Read more

For more than ten years, WAY has also been calling for Bereavement Support Payments to be extended and uprated in line with inflation. So far, our calls for action have fallen on deaf ears. 

We are pleased to see that WAY member Caroline and others involved in Widows Fight are taking up this cause and urge all WAY members and supporters to sign their petition to help secure a debate in Parliament.