When Bereavement Support Payments stop: Widowed mum left with £50 a month

January 2025

Just before Christmas and a month after her daughter Poppy’s first birthday, Sophie’s Bereavement Support Payments (BSP) stopped. This support, amounting to £350 a month for 18 months, had been a vital financial lifeline following the sudden death of her husband in 2023.

Sophie was forced to go back to work three days a week to make ends meet. After paying her mortgage, childcare costs and other bills each month, she has just £50 left… 

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“When I was 25 and 17 weeks pregnant, Paul was killed in a collision with an HGV on his way to work,” says Sophie. “I not only lost my husband but the future we had planned together.” 

“I relied heavily on Bereavement Support Payments,” she says. “They allowed me to do the obvious things like pay bills, buy nappies etc but also to attend baby groups, to socialise and meet other people. It can feel so lonely and overwhelming suddenly being a widowed first-time parent.”

The 18 monthly payments stopped in November 2024, just before Christmas and only a month after Poppy’s first birthday. The timing couldn’t have been worse. 

“Eighteen months of support just isn’t long enough!” says Sophie. “I’ve had to go back to work, which I don’t feel ready for, and I’m really struggling with it. I get up at the crack of dawn three days a week to work as a project manager and I don’t really see Poppy on those days at all. By the time we get home, it’s basically bathtime and bed.”

“It feels so lonely”

Sophie can no longer afford to take Poppy to baby groups or take part in other social activities. “We’re not going out,” says Sophie. “We don’t have the money. It feels so lonely – those contacts were so important.”

To add insult to injury, Paul’s inquest is about to open, which Sophie knows she will find unsettling. She has just started counselling to help her cope.

“I really try hard not to have a negative mindset,” says Sophie. 

“Work is important to me and I don’t want to give up work,” she adds. “I knew I wanted to go back at some point. But if the Bereavement Support Payment had continued for longer, it would have given me that buffer time to feel more ready to go back.”

Sophie’s income is just over the threshold for Universal Credit, so there’s no extra financial support available. She has reached out to her MP in Suffolk to explain the impact of the policy change that saw bereavement support slashed to just 18 months back in 2017, but his drop-in surgery is during her working hours, so it’s hard to find the time to see him in person. 

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Sophie’s message to her MP would be this:

“If Paul had died before the Government cut the payments in 2017,  I would potentially have received help until Poppy was 18 or finished full-time education, which would have helped me get back on my feet financially. Instead, the support stopped just when I needed it most. These payments are based on Paul’s National Insurance contributions – they are basically the pension he worked so hard for but never got to draw down. It is so sad for me and Poppy that support stopped just after her first birthday. I feel completely abandoned.”

“I would urge MPs for your support to look again at the cutting of this support to just 18 months for people in my position,” she says. “You don’t realise how devastating it is until it happens to you.”

WAY Widowed and Young has been campaigning to extend Bereavement Support Payments since the payments were slashed under the previous Government in 2017.

Please help us to stand up for bereaved families like Sophie’s by writing to your MP using this template letter!

Read more about our campaign to extend Bereavement Support Payments.