With effect from 1 April 2025, the England Infected Blood Support Scheme (EIBSS) is now closed to new applications for anyone who has historically been infected with hepatitis C, HIV or both, from NHS blood or blood products.
Newly bereaved partners in cases where the infected person was already a scheme member, and died between 1 January 2025 and 31 March 2025, can apply to the EIBSS up to 3 months from the date of death. This is to allow a grace period after the 31 March 2025 deadline for new applications.
After that date, estates and bereaved partners should apply directly to the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) who are responsible for any compensation payments. You can visit their website for their latest updates.
Applications for interim payments to estates continue to remain open and guidance on how to apply, the eligibility criteria, and the application process is available at: www.gov.uk/infected-blood-compensation-estates.
The scheme provides support to spouses, civil partners and long-term partners of an England Infected Blood Support Scheme (EIBSS) 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:
- a bereavement payment
- 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
Estates and family members
Estates and family members of deceased EIBSS beneficiaries could apply for:
- a bereavement payment
- 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)
Bereavement lump sum payment
If a beneficiary died on or after 1 November 2017, eligible spouses, civil partners, long-term partners and estates of a deceased beneficiary could get a one-off bereavement payment of £10,000.
The estate of an EIBSS registered infected person must make an application to EIBSS for a bereavement lump sum within:
• 6 months if the person died before 1 January 2025
• 3 months if the person died between 1 January 2025 and 31 March 2025
Check if you're eligible
Partners are eligible if they were:
- married to, or in a civil partnership or long-term (at least one year) co-habiting relationship with an infected beneficiary at the time of their death
- registered with EIBSS
You will not qualify for payment if you were divorced, your civil partnership had been dissolved, or you were separated at the time.
Estates may be able to claim a bereavement payment if there is no eligible partner to receive this payment.
What happens next
We'll aim to provide a decision on all applications within 30 working days.
If your application is unsuccessful
If you wish to appeal the decision, you should email or write to us within 4 calendar weeks from the date on the letter. We may consider appeals received after 4 calendar weeks in extenuating circumstances.
Discretionary one-off payments
Funeral Grant
To claim a funeral grant the deceased beneficiary would need to be registered with EIBSS.
A discretionary payment of up to £3,500 is available for the person arranging the funeral, when an infected beneficiary has passed away.
To request this discretionary payment, complete the funeral grant discretionary one-off payment application form (PDF: 166KB).
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).
Bereaved partner payments
In the event of a death of a registered beneficiary, 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.
Ongoing entitlement to payments will be based upon the following timescales.
A newly-bereaved partner of an EIBSS-registered infected person must make an application to EIBSS as a bereaved partner within:
• 6 months if the person died before 1 January 2025
• 3 months if the person died between 1 January 2025 and 31 March 2025
Who can apply
To be eligible to apply for a Bereaved partner payment, the applicant must be a co-habiting spouse, civil partner or 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 bereavement lump sum and bereaved partner payments (PDF: 186KB).
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.
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.
