Guidance

Backdated payments for Widowed Parent’s Allowance

Check how backdated payments for Widowed Parent’s Allowance (WPA) can affect your benefits and tax.

• From: Department for Work and Pensions
• Published: 28 July 2023

This guidance was withdrawn on 9 February 2024

This guidance has been withdrawn because it is out of date. Backdated payments are not available for claims from 9 February 2024 onwards. Find more information about Widowed Parent’s Allowance.

Widowed Parent’s Allowance (WPA) may be owed to you if:

• your partner died before 6 April 2017
• you had dependent children
• you were living with your partner when they died

You may be entitled to a backdated payment. This is sometimes called a ‘retrospective payment’.

Backdated payments of WPA may affect your benefits and your income tax.

How benefits affect the amount of WPA you will receive

Your backdated payment may be lower if you got any of the following benefits while you were eligible for WPA:

• Income Support

• Incapacity Benefit

• Jobseeker’s Allowance

• Carer’s Allowance

• Employment and Support Allowance

• Universal Credit

If you got Universal Credit while you were eligible for WPA, you may have been overpaid. This means you might need to pay back some money. You must report your backdated WPA payment via your Universal Credit journal.

How backdated WPA payments affect other benefits you claim

You must report changes that affect other benefits when you get your backdated payment.

If you get Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit, your backdated payment may affect how much you get. It will only affect your tax credit payments for the year you receive the backdated payment.

Some other benefits have a limit on how much money you can:

• earn or get as regular income

• have in savings and capital

Your backdated payment will not count towards your income limit. It will count towards your savings and capital limit if you have any money left over after one year. Benefits affected include:

• Universal Credit
• Housing Benefit
• Pension Credit
• Income Support
• Employment and Support Allowance
• Jobseeker’s Allowance

How backdated WPA payments affect your taxes

You may need to pay Income Tax on your backdated payment.

If you pay tax through Pay As You Earn (PAYE), any money you owe will be taken from your other income automatically.

If you pay tax through Self Assessment (for example, if you’re self-employed) you need to declare your backdated WPA payment.

You must either:

• report it on your self-assessment tax return

• contact HMRC to include it on previous tax returns

How to claim a backdated WPA payment

Find out how to claim a backdated Widowed Parent’s Allowance payment.

Published 28 July 2023