Funeral Expenses Payment: who qualifies, how much you can get and how to claim

What is a Funeral Expenses Payment?

A Funeral Expenses Payment is a one-off grant from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for people on certain income-related benefits who are responsible for paying for a funeral and live in England or Wales. It comes from the Social Fund, and GOV.UK's Funeral Expenses Payment guide is clear that it will not usually cover the whole cost of a funeral, because it meets the necessary burial or cremation costs but caps what it pays towards everything else.

Our guide to who pays for a funeral if there is no money sets out the wider options, from the estate to public health funerals, so this page concentrates on the payment itself and how to claim it.

Which benefits do you need to be getting?

You, or your partner, must be getting at least one qualifying benefit. GOV.UK lists Universal Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, and says you might also be eligible if you get a Support for Mortgage Interest loan. The DWP's SF200 claim form notes (the version dated March 2026) also list Income Support and income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, which remain qualifying benefits in the regulations.

The regulations still name Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit as well, but tax credits ended on 5 April 2025, so they no longer help anyone qualify. If you have applied for a qualifying benefit and are waiting for a decision, you can still claim, but the 6-month deadline keeps running whilst you wait.

Does your relationship to the person who died affect whether you qualify?

It does. The simplest case is the partner of the person who died, meaning a husband, wife or civil partner who lived with them, or someone living with them as a couple, including immediately before one of them moved into a care home. The parent of a baby stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy, or the parent or person responsible for a child, can also claim on the child version of the form.

If the person who died had no partner, a close relative or close friend can claim, but only if it is reasonable for them to accept responsibility for the funeral costs, which the regulations say is judged by the nature and extent of their contact with the person who died. Close relative means a parent, son, daughter, brother or sister, including in-laws, step-parents and step-children.

Two further rules can stop a claim even when you qualify on benefits.

• The immediate family rule. If the person who died has a parent, son or daughter who is not on a qualifying benefit and was not estranged from them, a close relative or friend cannot usually get the payment. There are exceptions, for example where that family member is under 18, in full-time education, in prison after being on a qualifying benefit, in a care home funded by the council or usually living outside the UK.

• The closer contact rule. If another close relative was in closer contact with the person who died than you were, or in equally close contact and not on a qualifying benefit, the claim can be refused.

This is why the SF200 asks about each of the other close relatives, including whether they get a qualifying benefit, how often they kept in touch and whether they gave domestic or caring help. Answer them fully, because a vague answer about a sibling can lead to a refusal that a clearer one would have avoided.

Where does the funeral have to take place?

The funeral normally has to take place in the UK, and the person who died must have been ordinarily resident in the UK when they died. GOV.UK also mentions the European Economic Area and Switzerland, but regulation 7 of the Social Fund Maternity and Funeral Expenses (General) Regulations 2005 allows a funeral there only where you or your partner have particular EU-linked residence rights, such as settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. You must also live in England or Wales yourself.

How much is a Funeral Expenses Payment?

There is no single figure, because the payment is built from the necessary costs plus a capped sum for everything else. Under regulation 9 and the SF200 notes, it can cover:

• burial costs, including a new grave and the exclusive right of burial or the cost of reopening an existing grave, or the cremation fees

• removing a pacemaker or other medical device before cremation (with no more than £20 met where it is removed by someone who is not a registered doctor)

• medical reports or other documents needed for the burial or cremation, and documents needed to release the money of the person who died, such as death certificates

• moving the body within the UK to the funeral director or place of rest, and the vehicle for the coffin and bearers plus one extra car to the funeral, but only for the distance beyond 50 miles, counting the return leg

• one return trip for you, either to arrange the funeral or to attend it

• up to £1,000 for any other funeral expenses, such as the coffin, cars and the funeral director's fees

The £1,000 limit has stood since 8 April 2020, and the funeral director's fees, the coffin and the cars all have to fit within it. Burial and cremation fees sit outside the limit, but where there is a choice of local burial grounds or crematoria the DWP usually pays only for the least expensive, so choosing a dearer one can leave you covering the difference. The regulations also exclude any part of the burial, cremation or transport costs that relates to a requirement of the person's religious faith. If the person who died had a prepaid funeral plan, nothing is paid for items the plan covers, and the limit for other expenses drops to £120.

You remain responsible for any gap between the award and the bill, and our guide to how much a funeral costs in the UK shows how large that gap can be.

What money is taken off the payment?

The DWP deducts money that is already available for the funeral, so the award is reduced by:

• assets of the person who died that you or your family can get without a grant of probate or letters of administration, such as money in their bank or building society account

• lump sums due to you or your family on the death from an insurance policy, occupational pension scheme or burial club

• money payable under a funeral plan that had not been fully paid for, or any allowance a fully paid plan gives towards funeral expenses

• a funeral grant paid from public funds for someone who had a war disablement pension

Some money is ignored. Arrears of benefits owed to the person who died, such as Attendance Allowance or State Pension, are excluded, and your own savings are not counted, which nidirect spells out for the Northern Ireland scheme.

The SF200 notes suggest asking the bank to pay the funeral bill directly if there is enough in the account, and our guide to what happens to a bank account when someone dies explains how banks handle this.

How do you claim a Funeral Expenses Payment?

GOV.UK lists two ways to claim, by phone or by post on form SF200. The Bereavement Service helpline is 0800 151 2012 (Welsh language 0800 731 0453), open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and the adviser can help with other bereavement benefits at the same time. To claim by post, download the adult or child version of the SF200 and send it to Freepost DWP Funeral Payments, or take it to your local Jobcentre Plus.

The timing rules are strict:

• The claim window runs from the date of death until 6 months after the date of the funeral.

• You can claim before the funeral, but only once you have an invoice or signed contract from the funeral director, because the DWP will not accept an estimate.

• If you get Universal Credit, you will not get a decision until after your next Universal Credit payment.

The form warns that missing documents may delay the claim, so send the funeral director's final bill or signed contract with your name, address and National Insurance number written on it, receipts for anything not on that bill, and a copy of any prepaid plan with the provider's statement of what it covers. Tell the funeral director at the start that you are claiming.

If the bill has not been paid, the DWP usually pays the funeral director directly, whereas if you have already paid, or did not use a funeral director, the money goes into your bank, building society or credit union account. If you disagree with the decision, you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration, usually within one month of the date on the decision letter, before appealing to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal.

Does a Funeral Expenses Payment have to be paid back?

It does if the person who died left an estate that can repay it, but the money comes from the estate rather than your own pocket. Section 78(4) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 lets the DWP recover the payment from the estate as if it were a funeral expense, and by no other means, and the SF200 notes explain that because funeral expenses are paid before anything else from an estate, the DWP's claim ranks ahead of other debts.

The home of a surviving partner, and personal possessions left to relatives, are not counted. The DWP writes to you, or to whoever is dealing with the person's affairs, to ask what the estate contains, because money sometimes becomes available later, for example when an insurance policy nobody knew about turns up. If you are the executor, hold the repayment in mind before you share anything out, and our guide to what an executor does covers the order in which an estate's debts are settled.

How is it different in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

In Scotland, Funeral Expenses Payment has been replaced by Funeral Support Payment from Social Security Scotland. For a person aged 18 or over, mygov.scot gives £1,327.75 towards standard funeral costs, or £162.05 where there was a funeral plan, alongside burial, cremation or hydrolysis costs, and these are the rates that have applied since 1 April 2026. The qualifying benefits are much the same as in England and Wales, and you must live in Scotland and apply no later than 6 months after the funeral, online, by post or by phone on 0800 182 2222 (8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday). Social Security Scotland usually expects the nearest relative (a partner, child, parent or sibling) to take responsibility, and if you are not that person you have to explain why when you apply.

In Northern Ireland the payment is still called Funeral Expenses Payment and is run by the Department for Communities. nidirect lists the same qualifying benefits as GOV.UK, the same £1,000 limit for other funeral expenses and the same 6-month deadline, and claims go through the Northern Ireland Bereavement Service on 0800 085 2463 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) or on a paper form.

For a child under 18, or a baby stillborn after 24 weeks, England also has the Children's Funeral Fund, which is not means-tested and pays burial or cremation fees and up to £300 towards a coffin.

What to do next

1. Check that you or your partner get a qualifying benefit, or have a claim waiting for a decision.

2. Work out whether another close relative had closer contact with the person who died, or is not on benefits.

3. Tell the funeral director you are claiming, and ask for the final invoice or a signed contract rather than an estimate.

4. Ask the bank of the person who died whether it will pay the funeral bill from their account.

5. Call 0800 151 2012 or send form SF200 with the bills and receipts, well within 6 months of the funeral.

6. Keep the award letter so the executor can allow for repayment from the estate.

An old savings account or insurance policy may hold money the DWP will later ask about, so if you need to know what the person had, Legacy Trail's Account Discovery Service searches for accounts the family may not know about, and the free notification service tells the providers you already know about. Our guide to Bereavement Support Payment covers the separate benefit a surviving partner may also claim.