Catalogue description Department of Health and Social Security and predecessors: Widows' Benefits: Representative Case Papers

Widows' benefits, as part of the National Insurance Scheme, were introduced on 5 July 1948 under the National Insurance Act 1946. They were designed to help all widows in the period immediately following bereavement, and subsequently to provide an income for those most in need. To qualify a widow for such benefits, her spouse was required to have paid a minimum number of weekly National Insurance contributions during his working life. The amount of benefit paid was determined by the contribution record of the deceased.

When the payment of widow's allowance ceased (twenty-six weeks after the death of the husband), a widowed mother's allowance was payable if the widow had a dependent child (under nineteen years of age) living at home. In such cases, the widow received the allowance plus a flat-rate addition for every other dependent child.

A widow's pension was also payable (on a sliding scale) to a woman who was between the ages of forty and fifty when her husband died or when entitlement to widowed mother's allowance ceased.