As of 22 October 2025, the England Infected Blood Support Scheme is now open to new applications for Bereaved Partner Payments, for registered EIBSS beneficiaries who passed away on or after 1 January 2025
The scheme provides support to spouses, civil partners and long-term partners of an EIBSS-registered beneficiary who has died after joining the scheme. There is also support available for estates and family members.
Spouses, civil partners and long-term partners
Spouses, civil partners and long-term partners of deceased EIBSS beneficiaries could apply for:
- discretionary one-off payment towards talking therapy
- discretionary one-off payment towards a funeral grant
- discretionary one-off payment towards employment training
- financial and benefits advice
- bereaved partner payments
Estates and family members
Estates and family members of deceased EIBSS beneficiaries could apply for:
- discretionary one-off payment towards talking therapy
- discretionary one-off payment towards a funeral grant
- child payments (if you're the primary carer of a beneficiary's child)
Bereaved partner payments
In the event of a death of a registered beneficiary that occurred on or after 1 January 2025, EIBSS will pay the surviving partner the equivalent regular payment for one year at 100%, and subsequent years will be paid at a rate of 75% of the beneficiary payment.
To be eligible to apply for a Bereaved partner payment, the applicant must be a spouse, civil partner or a co-habiting long-term partner of an infected beneficiary at the time of their death.
How to apply
To make a claim you need to download and complete an application form for bereaved partner payments (PDF: 174KB).
We can post an application form to you. To request this, contact us.
How it is assessed
To assess your claim, you need to provide the following information:
- Confirmation that you are the spouse, civil partner or long-term partner of the EIBSS beneficiary at the time of their death.
- Provide proof of ID.
- Evidence that you were co-habiting at the time of death unless it is stated on the death certificate. You can provide evidence such as, a joint utility bill, a joint council tax bill, a joint bank statement, a joint lease or mortgage document.
If you can’t provide documentary evidence to prove you were co-habiting and it is not stated on the death certificate, please complete the Referee Form - Appendix 1 at the back of the application form.
You will need to confirm your circumstances and explain why you are unable to provide documentary evidence in Section A, and arrange for someone who can act as a referee for you to complete and sign a declaration in Section B.
We will normally deal with your application within 30 working days of receiving your form. If we need more information, we will write to you to ask for it.
Discretionary one-off payments
Talking therapy
A discretionary one-off payment of up to £900 per year is available towards talking therapy costs.
To apply for the talking therapy discretionary one-off payment, the applicant must be one of the following:
- an infected beneficiary registered with EIBSS
- a bereaved beneficiary registered with EIBSS
- family members of an infected beneficiary registered with EIBSS or previous schemes
To apply for talking therapy you need to download and complete a talking therapy discretionary payment application form (PDF: 318KB).
If you are a family member of an infected beneficiary and have not received a payment from us previously, you will need to complete a contact preferences and personal details form (PDF: 140KB).
Employment Training
A discretionary one-off payment per year is available to help towards employment training costs for bereaved partners.
Discretionary payments received on or after 1 April 2025 will count towards your final compensation package and will be deducted from any future compensation award, excluding talking therapy and NHS Prescription Prepayment Certificate applications.
To apply for this payment, you need to download and complete an employment training discretionary one-off payment application form (PDF: 180KB).
Child payments
These means-tested payments are to help with the costs of bringing up children of an infected beneficiary.
Dependants are children of an infected beneficiary up to the age of 18 years, or up to 21 if in full-time education.
These payments are available to the primary care provider of the child or children.
Infected beneficiaries may qualify for a child supplement by completing a child payments application form, and be assessed as having a household income under £37,900.
Bereaved beneficiaries would need to qualify under the threshold of £28,401.
If you're the primary care provider of a child or children of an infected beneficiary but not a beneficiary yourself, you may still be entitled to apply for support for the child or children for who you're caring for.
Discretionary payments received on or after 1 April 2025 will count towards your final compensation package and will be deducted from any future compensation award, excluding talking therapy and NHS Prescription Prepayment Certificate applications.
Who can apply
To be eligible to apply for a payment for children, the applicant needs to be registered with EIBSS. Everyone registered with EIBSS holds a unique reference number and will be in one of the following groups:
- Someone historically infected with HIV or hepatitis C from NHS blood or blood products.
- A bereaved spouse, civil or long-term partner who lived with an infected beneficiary.
- Primary care providers of an infected beneficiary’s biological child or children.
