Bereavement Support Payment & Funeral Payment

Bereavement Support Payment doesn’t count as income for other benefits (unlike its predecessors) but does it affect Funeral Payment?

I’m fairly certain BSP doesn’t affect Funeral Payment but just wanted to double check. I’m particularly concerned with the initial lump sum.

BSP lump sum doesn’t come under any of the deductions I’m familiar with:
- deceased’s asset
- insurance policy payout
- pension scheme payout
- burial club/ equivalent payout
- contribution from family or charity
- funeral grant
- funeral plan payout

Does this mean that under the new Bereavement Support Payment rules, a widow/er on means-tested benefits could potentially get the lump sum of BSP (plus monthly payments) as well as a Funeral Payment, with no effect on their existing benefits?

I think that is right Kelly.  People in the past wouldn’t be so likely to get a funeral payment because the bereavement benefit might well mean their income was too high to get some of the passporting benefits. Now that wouldn’t be the case. And the BSP isn’t taken into account, as far as I can see, when considering any deductions from the award of the funeral payment.

I hope people are sufficiently aware of the possibility of claiming both - I worry they won’t be.