Support for people facing bereavement

Having to pay for a funeral can cause extra strain for people at what can be a difficult time.

That’s why, during National Grief Awareness week, we want to highlight the services and benefits available from Social Security Scotland, which may help to ease financial worry and reduce paperwork for people. Through our Bereavement Service specially trained experienced and compassionate expert client advisers provide help to people who need to update us about benefit payments after a death.

With just one phone call, people can report the death of a family member, friend or loved one directly to one of our advisers. At that point, our adviser will take the necessary information for all payments that need to be cancelled.

Our Bereavement Service is also connected to the UK-wide 'Tell Us Once' scheme, which lets most government departments and local authorities know when someone dies. The system allows us to automatically follow up with any actions without the need for people to send information separately. This helps take away some of the worry people have about more administrative tasks at this upsetting time.

Our client advisers are helping make a difference to our clients at a time when they may be feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed. A client adviser from our Bereavement Service, said:

“Clients are grateful for being made aware of services like Tell Us Once which they can use to report the death once and all relevant departments will be notified.

“We make the caller aware of further assistance that may be available to them such as Funeral Support Payment or Bereavement care.

“Sometimes the caller may just want to talk about their experience of losing a loved one and we will lend a listening ear."

Our client advisers can also signpost and help eligible people to apply for Funeral Support Payment, which helps pay towards funeral costs for people on low incomes getting certain benefits.

It can be paid either to parents and families or the funeral director who is helping to plan the funeral. In Scotland, local authorities cover the burial or cremation costs for a baby, child or young person aged 17 or under.

Since launching Funeral Support Payment in September 2019, we have approved over 32,600 applications, providing more than £37.8 million of support for people and families.

People can apply for Funeral Support Payment online, via a paper application form or by calling us free on 0800 182 2222 and asking to speak to the specially trained bereavement team.

To find out more information, people can visit mygov.scot/funeralsupportpayment