The scheme has three main components payable in the event of a death-
Calculating the Survivor's Guaranteed Income Payment.
The SGIP is arrived at using 60% of the deceased's full Guaranteed Income Payment. The final figure is worked out by multiplying the person's salary at the time of death by the relevant listed age factor factor and then by 0.6.
Example
A person aged 30 dies- his salary is £32,000 on the day of his death. The GIP factor for someone aged 30 is 0.841. Therefore the calculation is 32,000 x 0.841 x 0.6 = £16,147.20.
The MOD will not make additional payments if there is more than one surviving spouse, the ordinary payment will simply be split into the number of entitles surviving spouses.
The Bereavement Grant.
The maximum amount of the Bereavement Grant is £20,000. Individual entitlement is worked out as follows:
Child's Payment for an Eligible Child.
When a person in the Armed Forces dies any child or young person who was financially dependant on that person is entitled to the Child's Payment.
An eligible child must be:
Somebody who leaves full time education under the age of 19 is treated as being in such education until the first of the following days after education ceases:
Eligible children are able to take breaks from education- payments will cease for the duration of the break but will resume once the young person has returned to full-time education. Young people who have left school but have not yet gone on to full time further education are able to take a break of up to 15 months whereas those already in further education are able to take a break of up to twelve months.
Eligible Children and Ill Health
A young person who leaves full-time education or vocational training because of ill health will continue to receive benefits until:
Where ill health prevents attendance for education or training, it is likely that the person will still qualify because they will be unable to "engage in gainful employment" (see above).
How the Child's Payment is Calculated.
In woking out the entitlement the full Guaranteed Income Payment(GIP) is worked out first (at 100%) using the person's salary on the day of death or on the day of discharge if the person had already left the Armed Forces prior to dying.
Where there are no more than three eleigible children, 15% of the full GIP is to be allocated to the first two children and 10% is to be allocated to the third.
Where there are more than three eligible children 40% of the full GIP is to be divided equally between them.
In cases where a person dies without leaving a surviving spouse, civil partner or a surviving adult dependant then if there are no more than 4 children, each child will receive 25% of the full GIP. If there are more than four children then the full GIP will be divided equally between them.
Payment.
Both the Survivor's Guaranteed Income Payment and the Children's Payment are normally paid monthly. The rate of payment is uprated each April in line with the previous September's rise in the All Price Retail Price index.
