I’ve missed out on £45,000 worth of benefits after my partner died due to bizarre law – I’m devastated

A MUM left devastated after her partner’s sudden death says she has missed out on £45,000 in benefits because of a bizarre law. Alice Evans, of Derbyshire, has raised her daughter alone since her boyfriend Daniel Sillwood died suddenly in his sleep in 2014. She reached out for financial help – but was told that […]

A MUM left devastated after her partner’s sudden death says she has missed out on £45,000 in benefits because of a bizarre law.

Alice Evans, of Derbyshire, has raised her daughter alone since her boyfriend Daniel Sillwood died suddenly in his sleep in 2014.

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Alice Evans (right), from Smalley, Derbyshire, pictured with her late partner Daniel Sillwood and their daughter Imogen[/caption]

She reached out for financial help – but was told that because she and Daniel weren’t married, she wasn’t entitled to support.

Under the current system, those who are unwed when their partner dies do not receive bereavement benefits.

Alice told DerbyshireLive she will campaign for a change in the law, adding: “When Daniel passed away, he was the breadwinner.

“We lost the wage that he brought in.

“I was left raising a child and running the household single-handedly.”

Daniel, who worked as an inspector at Rolls-Royce, was the family’s main earner. At the time of his death, his little girl was just two.

Bereavement Support Payments were introduced in 2017, replacing the Widowed Parent Allowance and other payments.

And Alice says that, had she been married, she and her daughter would have received around £45,000 over the past eight years.

“Daniel thought the world of Imogen and would do anything for her,” she said.

“He would come home from his night shift and take her to nursery in the morning, then come back home in the evenings and cook meals.

“He was a family orientated person.”

She said the couple were “living together as man and wife”, adding: “We just never got married.

“Maybe we would have one day – we just didn’t get the opportunity.”

Around 20,000 people in the UK are believed to be in a similar position to Alice and Imogen.

In Rishi Sunak’s autumn budget last year, it was suggested that grieving parties will be able to claim as much as £10,000 in backdated benefits from 2022 under bereavement support benefits.

Grief-stricken families have long lobbied for the change.

Nigel Mills, Conservative MP for Amber Valley, promised: “The change is going to happen and the catch up payments will be made, it’s just a parliamentary process that needs completing.

“Sadly that’s not always as quick as we’d all like.”