Funeral Payment Grant (Form SF200)

If you're on a low income and need help to pay for a funeral you're arranging, you may be able to get a Funeral Payment from the Social Fund. A Funeral Payment includes necessary burial or cremation fees, certain other specified expenses and up to £700 for any other funeral expenses, such as the funeral director's fees, the coffin or flowers. You can claim a Funeral Payment from the date of death and up to three months after the date of the funeral. The form (SF200) can be collected from your local job centre. The form is 36 pages, over 50% of this is notes. The majority of the detail concerns the deceased and your relationship to them.

You may be eligible for a Funeral Payment from the Social Fund if you or your partner are getting any of the following benefits or tax credits:

• Income Support
  income-based Job seeker's Allowance
  income-related Employment and Support Allowance
  Pension Credit
  Housing Benefit
  Council Tax Benefit (or the Council Tax payer where you live gets a Second Adult Rebate because you are on a low income)
  Working Tax Credit which includes a disability or severe disability element
  Child Tax Credit at a rate higher than the family element

To be able to get a Funeral Payment you must also be either:

• the partner of the deceased when they died
  the parent of the deceased child, or have been responsible for the deceased child (and there is no absent parent) (unless they are getting one of the above qualifying benefits or were estranged from the child at the date of death)
  the parent of a still-born child
  a close relative or close friend of the deceased (and it is reasonable for you to accept responsibility for the funeral costs)