Bereavement Benefits Only For Married Couples

[dave50]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35417510
If you have been together a long time and have children why not just get married? It doesn't have to be a big fancy do. Just nip down to the registry office and do it, takes about half an hour. What is it that puts people off? They will have kids but wont marry, I don't get it. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. The argument some use that it might 'spoil' things is ludicrous, why should it? You are exactly the same couple before you marry as after. Someone please give me a logical answer.

[Old_Geezer]

Because no one should force folk to go through some pointless ritual to get what they should be entitled to as a right anyway. The only things to gain are those unreasonably and unfairly withheld that are offered to those who capitulate. It is part of a controlling society which some actually think is ok to inflict. But this of course is blatantly obvious and is clearly unreasonable interference by the State on the individual, so I guess you are looking for some other answer ?

[viv41]

I don't understand this. Do you automatically get bereavement benefit if you are married ? Mum didn't for Dad.

[Mamyalynne]

General info here re Death and associated benefits.


https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits/bereavement

[douglas9401]

Looks like if one wants £2k if their significant other dies before pension age then they need to be married or civilly partnered.
There it is then, it's out there. If you want the loot you get organised, if not you stop bleating. No mystery.

[woofgang]

not automatically viv, you have to claim it and its based on your late husbands NI payments. Its coming up for six years ago now so the rules might have changed tooOG I tend to disagree in this instance. The point of only allowing it in legally recognised unions is, I think to ensure that it goes to people who might need it after the loss of their partner...otherwise what is to stop people forming relationships with people who are terminally ill and claiming the money over and over again?

viv, you have to be under pensionable age
https://www.gov.uk/bereavement-allowance

https://www.gov.uk/bereavement-payment

[whistonian]

Neither did I Viv when I lost my wife a year ago after nearly 6o years of marriage. Maybe it's because I do not receive any benefits and had sufficient funds to cover all expenses.

[tamborine]

Laws are based on christianity, not sharia......yet

[youngmafbog]

So here's the basic rules, not rocket science:
You may be able to get Bereavement Payment if when your husband, wife or civil partner died, you were either:

under State Pension age
over State Pension age and your husband, wife or civil partner wasn’t entitled to a State Pension based on their own national insurance contributions
Additionally, your husband, wife or civil partner must have either:

paid enough national insurance contributions
died as a result of an industrial accident or disease

And of course it needs to be registered that you are together or all sorts of spurious claims could be made as nothing could be proved one way or another!

[bednobs]

if you are exactly the same as couple before and after marriage, why do so many people bother?

[tamborine]

Maybe to give offspring financial security & inheritance rights, bednobs

[youngmafbog]

Just in case they need to claim bereavement benefit perhaps?

[viv41]

Yes whistonian, that sounds the same for my Mum, but I still don't quite understand it. I won't say anything to her now, no point upsetting her.

[dave50]

No one has yet answered my question. What is the mental block some people have to getting married to someone they have been with for years?

[hc4361]

Some people just don't believe in marriage, dave50.

[TWR]

Been Unsure.

[AliceTickband]

I cannot get my head round why couples can commit to a lifetime of looking after their children but cannot commit to each other. You might say that they can commit privately to each other, but at least if the mum and dad are married it is a little harder to walk away. and in my opinion any woman who has a child with a man without marriage and allows the child's surname to be the father's surname is a sandwich or two short of a picnic!

[tamborine]

Financial unless father is rich

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/lone_parents/1437800-How-much-money-for-a-lone-parent-with-3-children

[hc4361]

tambo, that's if the couple live apart. Many couples with children live together without getting married - they get no more benefits than if they were married, and less in some cases.

[hc4361]

Alice, I don't think a marriage certificate does make it harder to walk away. Children, a mortgage, pets and a shared home are just as difficult to deal with during a split if you are married or not. The divorce itself is the easy bit.

[jourdain2]

Can't. Lived with OH for 5 years. Gulped at the commitment, but plunged. A chap who elopes with you when he is 75 can't be all bad!

Being married changes things a little bit, but for the better. Couldn't be happier. (Unless he abandons all those annoying little habits etc., etc. .......) :)

No logical answer, if you belong together, you belong together and you may as well tell people about it and get married.