Progressive Policy Winner - The Funeral Support Payment by Social Security Scotland
Progressive Policy Winner - The Funeral Support Payment by Social Security Scotland
Social Security Scotland has pledged to administer payments and benefits with dignity, fairness and respect. Nowhere is this more important than with Funeral Support Payment, which offers help to people during some of their most difficult days.
Specially trained advisors help eligible clients get the support they need. Introduced in 2019, Funeral Support Payment comes in three parts. The first covers the cost of burial or cremation. The second component covers the standard rate of £1,178.75 for other expenses for most clients or £143.85 if the person who died had a pre-paid funeral plan. The third covers other costs including travel expenses incurred by the clients, transport cost to transfer the body of the deceased and some document costs and medical costs.
Clients are eligible for Funeral Support Payment if they or their partner live in Scotland, get a qualifying benefit or payment and are arranging and paying for the funeral of someone who lived in the UK. Applications must be made within six months of the person dying. In most cases the person making the application will be a close relative, but they don’t have to be. Before applying, clients should register the death of the deceased person and check whether they might be eligible. They may want to inform their funeral director though this is not a requirement.
Applications can be made online via the mygov.scot website, by post, over the phone or in person.
It’s important for Social Security Scotland to make sure as many eligible people as possible are receiving Funeral Support Payment. This year we have embarked on a marketing campaign to increase awareness of the payment. You may have seen our posters advertising Funeral Support Payment on hundreds of phone kiosks across Scotland during the campaign which ran from January until April. There were also adverts running on radio and on digital channels.
Our most recently published statistics show that take-up – the percentage of those eligible successfully applying for the payment - was 66%. That represented a rise on the previous year but there is still work to be done to make sure that more of those eligible can apply successfully. That means a total of £32.5 million worth of support since the payment was introduced until the end of December 2022.
In December last year the then Minister for Social Security Ben Macpherson visited Scotmid Funerals and discussed better engagement between Social Security Scotland and the industry.
We have also been talking to other industry bodies and stakeholders as we continue our efforts to drive take-up forward.
As well as Funeral Support Payment, Social Security Scotland operates a bereavement service of specially trained client advisers provided help to people who have to report a death and need to update us. With just one phone call, people can report the death of a family member, friend or loved one directly to an expert adviser. At that point, our adviser will take the necessary information for all payments that need to be cancelled.
Social Security Scotland is delighted to be a part of the Demystifying Death awards and working with the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care.
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