Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v E (Social Security Benefits - Bereavement support payment - Making a claim) [2026] UKUT 71 (AAC) (12 February 2026)

Executive summary

The Upper Tribunal allowed the Secretary of State’s appeal, held that the First-tier Tribunal had made an error of law, set that decision aside, and remade the case by concluding that E did not qualify for bereavement support payment because her claim was out of time. It rejected the First-tier Tribunal’s reasoning that the Tell Us Once service had a duty to warn her about the benefit, that failure to do so was negligent or a reasonable-adjustment breach, and that the rules had to be read compatibly with the ECHR to permit an out-of-time claim.

Key points

• Parties: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v E; appeal concerned bereavement support payment after the death of E’s husband.
• Holding: the Upper Tribunal allowed the appeal and restored the Secretary of State’s 2024 refusal of the claim.
• Reasoning: there is no compulsory obligation for the Tell Us Once service to advise people of a benefit claim, and it was not negligent not to do so.
• Reasoning: the Tribunal found no failure to make a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010.
• Human rights: the cut-off date for BSP was held not to breach Article 1 of Protocol 1 read with Article 14, despite E’s mental health problems.
• Sanctions/export-control angle: none identified in the judgment; this is a domestic social security timing case with no sanctions or export-control content.

Why it matters

This decision reinforces a strict statutory-claims approach: entitlement depends on making a claim within the prescribed time, and administrative omission by a government notification service does not create entitlement. For sovereign-risk and compliance analysts, it is a reminder that UK tribunals may resist using equality or human-rights arguments to reopen closed benefit deadlines absent clear legal authority.

Implications

For litigation strategy, the case narrows arguments based on Tell Us Once communications, negligence, and Equality Act accommodation in out-of-time benefit claims. For compliance and public-law risk, it underscores that departments can rely on statutory time limits unless regulations expressly confer discretion to extend them.