Martin Lewis issues two-month warning to families who could be owed £10,000s

Martin Lewis has alerted families to the fact they could be entitled to tens of thousands of pounds if one parent has died in the past few years.

However, you may need to be quick, as one form of support can only be backdated until February 8 next year.

On his Martin Lewis Money Show, the financial guru highlighted two payments that could be available to a person whose partner has died.

The first was the Widowed Parent’s Allowance, which supports unmarried people with children whose partner died between April 9 2001 and April 5 2017.

This can be as much as £139 per week – meaning if you haven’t previously claimed it and are able to get it backdated, it could have added up to the tens of thousands.

If you can get the allowance backdated, it’ll only apply as far back as 2018, so if your partner died before then, you won’t get extra cash.

The Widowed Parent’s Allowance will carry on being paid until the end of the time one of your children is eligible for child benefit.

But time is running out on the opportunity to get it backdated. If you think you might have a claim, the deadline is February 8 next year, so you’ve only got a couple of months.

Claims can be made via post, using a form obtained from the gov.uk website or from the bereavement service helpline.

Martin Lewis has explained the different forms of support available to people whose partners have died (Picture: ITV)

The other form of help raised by Lewis was the Bereavement Support Payment, which replaced the Widowed Parent’s Allowance and can apply to married or unmarried couples with or without children.

Unmarried people with children are able to backdate this payment if their partner died between April 6 2017 and February 8 this year.

Meanwhile, married people or those in a civil partnership are able to claim the payment if their partner if their partner died in the last 21 months.

Lewis said: ‘That means if it was March 2022 – that was 21 months ago – or April, you need to go pretty quickly, because that’s the cut-off point if you didn’t claim at that time.’

More information about the Widowed Parent’s Allowance and the Bereavement Support Payment can be found on their respective pages on the government’s website.

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