A WIDOWED mum-of-two who couldn't get a government support package when her partner died says it was ‘demeaning’ to her sons’ relationship with their father.

Kathy Ford, who lives in Pickmere, was left to look after two teenage boys on her own after her partner, Keith Hepplewhite, died suddenly of a heart attack in November 2018 when he was just 57.

But as Kathy and Keith had never married, when she came to apply for Bereavement Support Payments, a benefit worth £9,800 for cohabiting parents whose partners die, she was told she was not entitled.

She said it felt like the system saw her boys as less worthy of support than those of a married couple.

The 49-year-old said: “When the boys were born, Keith held them before I did, and when he died, they were the ones who had to help him on to the floor to be resuscitated.

“He was the first person to hold them, and they were the last person to hold him.

“He’d been there throughout their whole lives, and to find out that because we weren’t married we were different in law, was demeaning to their relationship with their father.

"It just seemed ludicrous."

Due to a recent change in the law, as of February 9 this year, unmarried but cohabiting couples with dependent children, like Kathy, are now entitled to claim Bereavement Support Payments and Widowed Parent’s allowance.

Kathy campaigned for this change as a member of Widowed and Young, which saw her giving evidence in front of a government select committee, and appearing on Radio 4’s Moneybox to draw wider attention to the issue.

Kathy added: “Because the government have now changed the legislation, and it has been backdated to August 30, 2018, people who have children born from 2001 are now eligible to claim back some money.

"We need to get the word out that people who couldn’t apply in the past, now can."