Partners of a deceased beneficiary

The government has agreed that eligible widows, widowers and civil partners should get a one-off payment of £10,000.

You're eligible if you meet all 3 criteria:

1. You were married or in a civil partnership with your spouse or civil partner when they died, and you were living together at the time.
    
2. Your spouse or civil partner was allocated as an ‘English’ beneficiary of the Skipton Fund or MFET.
    
3. It's likely that stage 1 or stage 2 hepatitis C and/or HIV contributed to the death of your spouse or civil partner.

You will not qualify for payment if:

• you were divorced, your civil partnership had been dissolved, or you were separated at the time

If your spouse or civil partner died on or after 1 November 2017, you must inform us within 6 months of their death.

To make a claim, you need to download and complete an application form (PDF: 150KB).

Alternatively, we can post an application form to you. To request this, contact us.

We'll ask you to confirm:

• your identity
• you were the beneficiary’s spouse or civil partner
• you were living with them at the time of their death
• that the infection contributed to the death

To do this you will need:

• proof of ID (for example, a copy of your passport, driving licence or birth certificate)
• proof of your current address (for example, a copy of your bank statement or utility bill)
• death certificate of your late spouse/partner (photocopies are acceptable)
• evidence to show that you were co-habiting at the time of your spouse/partner's death if this is not stated on the death certificate (for example, a joint bank statement or joint council tax bill), or if not available a completed Referee Form (Appendix 1 of the application form)
• a letter from a registered medical professional confirming that on the balance of probability, infection with hepatitis C or HIV contributed to the death of your spouse/partner, if the death certificate does not confirm this.

Doctor's evidence

You'll need to provide evidence that the hepatitis stage 1 or stage 2 and/or HIV, or treatment for it, contributed to death of your spouse or civil partner.

This should be from the hepatitis C or HIV specialist who treated them. This may not be possible if the death was some time ago.

In this case, you can nominate another hepatologist/infectious diseases consultant. This is only if they have access to your spouse or civil partner’s records. You can also nominate your spouse or civil partner’s GP.

We'll then contact the nominated doctor. We ask them to explain why they believe that hepatitis C or HIV contributed to the spouse or civil partner’s death. We may consult another hepatitis C or HIV specialist and clinical records to verify.

If your spouse or civil partner lived outside England when they died, we may contact their clinical specialist in that country about the cause of death.

We'll provide a decision on all applications as soon as possible. It may take longer if we need to ask you or your doctor for further information.

If the evidence clearly supports your answers on the application form, we'll approve your application for support. You will then receive the lump sum.

If your application is unsuccessful
If you wish to appeal the decision, you should contact us within 3 months from the date on the letter. We may consider appeals received after 3 months, but only if you can provide a good reason for not contacting us earlier.

Find out how to appeal.

If your spouse or civil partner was registered on a previous UK scheme, their details should have been transferred to us if they've consented.

If you need to, you can contact us.

If you've consented, your details will have been transferred to us if you've already been receiving support from the:

• Caxton Foundation
• Macfarlane Trust
• Eileen Trust

If you're eligible for support we'll contact you and send you an application form.

If we have not contacted you, contact us.

If your spouse or civil partner died before registering with us or a previous scheme, you do not qualify for payment.