Statutory Bereavement Damages: Calling for reform for bereaved families

April 2025

If your partner was killed as a result of someone else’s negligence, you may be entitled to claim Statutory Bereavement Damages. However, Lorraine Gwinnutt from the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) explains that the law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is woefully out of date and ripe for reform.

As members of WAY Widowed and Young know only too well, losing a loved one is absolutely earth shattering. To find out that a partner’s death was due to the negligence of someone else can make this loss even more devastating still.

In the midst of all the turmoil and grief, you may not realise that the person responsible for your partner’s death could be liable to pay you a statutory sum of £15,120 for your loss, if you live in England and Wales. If you live in Northern Ireland, the sum is £17,200.

Of course, no life can be ‘valued’ in monetary terms, but if a death has been caused needlessly, by the negligence of another person, an award of financial compensation is the only tool a court has at its disposal to acknowledge a relative’s loss and try to reduce the burden of that loss.

Statutory Bereavement Damages are not a benefit or support payment (unlike Bereavement Support Payments, which are provided by the Government). The damages are paid by the negligent party (or, usually, that party’s insurance company) and liability for the death must first be established. This is the work of the specialist personal injury lawyer who, in so-called ‘fatal’ cases, will automatically consider a claim for statutory bereavement damages as part of the overall claim.   

Postcode lottery

But the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) – a not-for-profit campaign organisation – believes the current law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is rigid, discriminatory and woefully out of date.

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APIL’s long-running campaign for Statutory Bereavement Damages reform calls for parity with Scotland, where claims for compensation for bereavement are considered on a case-by-case basis, with personal circumstances and relationships taken into consideration.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, APIL believes bereavement damages are too low and too rigid, with only a very small group of relatives entitled to claim them. That list comprises the spouse or civil partner of the deceased, and the parents of unmarried children under the age of 18, unless the parents are unmarried, in which case the child is classed as ‘illegitimate’ and the father has no claim. In 2020, cohabitees were added to the eligibility criteria, but only where the couple have lived together for more than two years.

In Scotland, bereavement damages are assessed using legal precedent and proper review of the bereaved relative’s closeness to the person who has been killed. Bereaved families are treated fairly and in a way which recognises the closeness of siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, step-parents and others.

It is time for this postcode lottery to end.

APIL’s campaign for reform has been supported by people like Amelia, whose partner of two-and-a-half years, Jordan, was killed in a car crash. Amelia was 29 weeks pregnant when Jordan was killed. They had lived together for 18 months and were saving for a new home 

Amelia was not entitled to bereavement damages because she and her partner were not married at the time of his death and she had not been living with Jordan for two years. 

“It is awful that they have to put a bracket on what is considered proper grief,” said Amelia. “If you love someone you love them, it doesn’t matter. Getting married doesn’t make you a better couple, it doesn’t make you love them more.”

If you’ve got a story you’d like to share relating to Statutory Bereavement Damages, please email media@widowedandyoung.org.uk