Death of a carer (CLK) 009-03080000

The agency needs to check whether the carer was receiving Carer Payment (CP) and/or Carer Allowance (CA) when they died. Entitlement to bereavement payment can then be determined. The amount of bereavement payment that may be payable depends on the carer's circumstances.

If the carer was a member of a couple and receiving an income support payment, such as CP, the surviving partner may be eligible for a lump sum bereavement payment (LBP) if they are a pensioner for LBP purposes or a long term social security recipient.

CA is payable up to the day prior to the carer's death and is cancelled from the date of death.

If the carer was not partnered or was partnered to a person not receiving an income support payment, CP is paid for the entitlement period in which they died. If the carer was partnered to a pensioner or long term social security recipient, CP is payable for the bereavement rate continuation period. The amount of CP paid after death will reduce any LBP payable to the surviving partner.

If the death action has already been recorded on the deceased carer's record, it may need to be undone to process the claim. See Undoing a death action.

Note: the death action must be completed on the same day as the claim is finalised. This will ensure the system generated letters, which are not appropriate to send to a deceased estate, are not issued. Send a Q999 letter to the executor of the estate to advise them of the outcome of the claim.

If employment income for the last period:

• are known, these must be recorded before stimulating the payment
• are not known, the payment must still be stimulated

After the payment is stimulated, the customer should be taken off reporting before recording the death action.