Statutory Bereavement Award Extended To Include Bereaved Cohabitees

In early September 2020, the Government amended the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 to extend the scope of people entitled to the statutory bereavement award to include cohabitees. This comes into force on Tuesday 6^th October 2020.

This means that if you are the cohabiting partner of the victim of a fatal accident you will be able to claim the statutory bereavement award of £15,120 just as spouses currently can. This definition includes same-sex relationships.

The Fatal Accidents Act 1976 (Remedial) Order 2020 adds ‘cohabitating partner of the deceased’ into the class of people entitled to claim bereavement damages and requires that the cohabitation is for a period of at least two years. As mentioned above, the level of the award is fixed by regulations at £15,120.

Previously, in order to claim the bereavement award you must:

• Have been living with the deceased in the same household immediately before the date of the death;
• Have been living with the deceased in the same household for at least two years before that date; and
• Have been living during the whole of that period as the wife or husband or civil partner of the deceased.

Following the case of Jacqueline Smith v Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Others in 2017, the Court of Appeal declared that the exclusion of a deceased’s cohabiting partner from the entitlement to bereavement damages under The Fatal Accident Act 1976, s 1A was contrary to the European Convention of Human Rights.

Before the amendment, a long-term partner could not claim this bereavement award but could claim the same items under the Fatal Accident Act as a bereaved spouse. The amount of damages awarded to a long-time partner would therefore be less than those a married person or civil partner in a successful civil claim would receive.

At Nelsons, we welcome this amendment, however, it is important to note that it is not retrospective and will not apply to deaths that occurred before the 6^th October 2020.