Northern Ireland will increase the statutory bereavement award to £19,700 from 1 December 2025. The change is set out in the Damages for Bereavement (Variation of Sum) Order (Northern Ireland) 2025 (SR 2025/173), made by the Department of Justice and sealed on 6 November. It replaces the current £17,200 ceiling set in 2022.

For readers running claims teams, in‑house legal, or broking across the North with exposure in Belfast and beyond, this matters now. The uplift is roughly 14.5% on the 2022 figure, so reserves for any fatal accident claims arising in Northern Ireland after the operative date should reflect the higher award. The Order applies to causes of action accruing on or after 1 December 2025, so earlier cases remain on the old sum.

Eligibility is unchanged. Article 3A of the Fatal Accidents (Northern Ireland) Order 1977 limits claims to a tight group: a spouse or civil partner, and in the case of a minor who was never married or in a civil partnership, the parents (or the mother if the child was defined as illegitimate under the legislation). Cohabiting partners are not included in Northern Ireland. Campaigners have long argued for wider eligibility.

For context, England and Wales currently fix the bereavement award at £15,120 and, since 2020, include qualifying cohabiting partners within scope. Scotland takes a different approach: there is no fixed sum; instead, the courts assess what is just in each case for relatives’ non‑patrimonial loss under the Damages (Scotland) Act 2011.

This Order is part of a steady, if infrequent, series of upratings in Northern Ireland. The award stood at £11,800 for years after 2008, rose to £15,100 in 2019, moved again to £17,200 in 2022, and will now reach £19,700 from December 2025. Practitioners will recognise the pattern of periodic adjustments rather than annual indexation.

Families should know the bereavement award is a fixed-sum acknowledgement of grief. It sits alongside other potential heads of loss, such as dependency claims, which are assessed on their own merits. The statutory award is not a cap on total compensation, and it is paid to those who meet the strict categories in Article 3A.

There are also knock‑on points outside civil courts. For example, compensation orders in criminal proceedings are tied to the amount specified in Article 3A(3), meaning any bereavement element ordered by a criminal court cannot exceed the new statutory figure once it comes into force.

This sits within a broader run of justice policy decisions in Belfast this year, including September’s move by the Department of Justice to remove deductions for “saved living expenses” from miscarriage‑of‑justice compensation. For legal teams working across the region, the message is clear: check the date of death, confirm eligibility, and update your templates for claims arising on or after 1 December.