The Bereavement Grant is a payment designed to assist families in dealing with death and funeral expenses. It is a scheme that relates specifically to those who have made PRSI contributions and is payable on the death of an insured person, his/her spouse and dependent children under age 18 or under age 22 if in full-time education.
In 2007 the bereavement grant was extended to the next of kin of deceased recipients of disability allowance aged between 16 and 22 years.
There are a wide range of benefits available to people who have paid social insurance. Entitlement to these benefits is dependent on the number of contributions and the class of contribution. Long term payments, such as the State pension (contributory), require a significant number of contributions given the value of the pension. The bereavement grant is available on the basis of only 26 contributions by the deceased or his or her spouse. This is significantly fewer contributions than are required by most other PRSI based payments.
I recognise of course that there are people who are unable to satisfy the minimum PRSI requirements. For that reason, where there are no or insufficient PRSI contributions to qualify for bereavement grant a person may receive assistance under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Under this arrangement, the Community Welfare Officer may make a single payment to help meet exceptional expenditure, for example, for funeral expenses, which a family could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their income.