Claiming Church of England Compensation for Someone Who Has Died

Has a loved one died? Did they suffer abuse that was connected to the Church of England? If so, you may be asking yourself if you can claim Church of England compensation for someone who has died. 

Perhaps your loved one spoke about what happened during their lifetime. Perhaps they never felt able to, and you have only discovered the abuse after their death. Whatever your circumstances, the question is the same: is it still possible to make a claim under the Church of England Redress Scheme?

In some situations, the answer is yes. If the person who experienced the abuse died before they were able to apply, certain close family members may be able to make an application. If they died after starting an application, the claim may be able to continue.

Here, we explain how each situation works in plain English and, where it helps, includes the exact legal wording so you can see where our explanation comes from. There is no need to read everything at once. Take your time and come back to it whenever you feel ready.

If grief is close to the surface as you read, the support organisations listed near the foot of this page are free, confidential, and entirely independent of Winston Solicitors and of the Church of England. One of them exists specifically for bereavement.

You may be able to claim Church of England Compensation for someone who has died but never claimed themselves, if you were one of the people closest to them. Section 6 of the Abuse Redress Measure allows an application by the surviving partner, a dependant child, or a dependant parent of a person who suffered abuse and has died.

Two things must both be true in order for this to happen:

1. The person who died would have been entitled to apply themselves if they were still alive, and
2. you have suffered your own harm, mental or emotional injury or financial loss, as a consequence of the abuse.

Where this Comes from in the Measure

“An application for redress under this Measure may be made by a person who: (a) is the surviving partner, or a dependant child or dependant parent, of a person who suffered abuse and has died but, if still alive, would be entitled to make an application under Section 5 relating to that abuse, and (b) has, in consequence of the abuse, suffered mental or emotional injury or economic loss.”

Section 6(1), Abuse Redress Measure 2025.

The first part of that test looks backwards at the person you lost. Would the scheme have recognised their case? That depends on the two-condition test in Section 5, which asks whether the person who abused them held a role in the Church of England and whether the abuse was closely connected to that role. The full explanation lives on our “Who Can Claim” page.

The second part looks at you. The application you make is your own, in your own right, for the harm that flowed through into your own life. Watching someone you love struggle with what was done to them, or discovering it after their death, causes real injury of its own, and that is what this route recognises.

Three relationships qualify, and each has a precise legal meaning.

• Surviving partner covers a husband, wife, or civil partner, and also a partner you were never married to. If you were living together as though married, or in a relationship with the other characteristics of a marriage or civil partnership, immediately before the death, you count.
• Dependant child does not mean the child had to be young. An adult son or daughter can qualify, and “child” includes a step-child and the child of the deceased’s partner. What matters is dependency: either the deceased had a financial or caring responsibility for you immediately before they died, or they had parental responsibility for you.
• Dependant parent works the other way around. You are the deceased’s parent, and immediately before the death they had a financial or caring responsibility for you.

Where this comes from in the Measure

“A person is a ‘dependant child’ of a deceased person if: (a) the person is a child of the deceased for whom, immediately before the death, the deceased had a financial or caring responsibility, or (b) the deceased had, immediately before the death, parental responsibility for the person.” A person is a ‘dependant parent’ if “(a) the person is a parent of the deceased, and (b) the deceased had, immediately before the death, a financial or caring responsibility for the person.”

Section 31(5) and 31(7), Abuse Redress Measure 2025. Section 31(2) defines the surviving partner as the deceased’s “surviving spouse, surviving civil partner or other surviving partner”.

There is one more part of this route, and we would rather you heard it from us plainly than discovered it later. The redress body can only grant a dependant application where it is satisfied there are exceptional circumstances that justify it.

Where this comes from in the Measure

“The redress body may grant an application for redress under section 4 only if it is satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances which justify granting the application.”

Section 10(6), Abuse Redress Measure 2025. Section 10(7) allows the Archbishops’ Council to prepare and revise guidance on what amounts to exceptional circumstances.

This rule makes the dependant route narrower than the route for survivors themselves, not pointless. It means how the application is prepared, and how your family’s circumstances are set out, matters more here than almost anywhere else in the scheme, and it is exactly the kind of case to take specialist advice on before you decide anything.

The application goes to the redress body, the independent organisation that decides claims under the scheme. It is decided on the balance of probabilities (meaning more likely than not), which is a far lower bar than a criminal court uses.

Because the person at the centre of the application cannot give their own account, the evidence works differently. What they told you, letters or diaries they left, medical or school records, and statements from others who knew what happened can all carry their voice into the application. Our evidence page explains what helps, including where the survivor cannot speak for themselves.

On what an award might look like: for survivors’ own applications, Schedule 1 of the Abuse Redress Rules 2025 sets a five-step calculation with awards from £5,000 to £660,000, explained in full on our compensation amounts page. How the redress body will assess a dependant’s award has not yet been set out in the same way, which is another reason to take advice rather than guess. You can use our Church of England Redress Scheme calculator to understand how the scheme values what was done to the person you lost; it asks no contact details, keeps no record, and runs entirely in your browser.

On cost: if the application succeeds, the solicitor’s costs are met through the scheme and not deducted from the award. The full position lives on our legal costs page.

The application can carry on. If your relative had already applied to the scheme, whether as a survivor or as a dependant, their death before a decision does not end the claim. The law names who can take it forward: the surviving partner first, and if there is no surviving partner, a surviving child. This is a different, shorter list than the dependant list above, and a parent is not on it.

Where this Comes from in the Measure

“Where an application for redress is made under section 3 or 6 but the applicant dies before the application is determined, the application may continue to proceed in accordance with the rules.” The person entitled to proceed is “(a) the deceased’s surviving partner, or (b) if there is no surviving partner, a surviving child of the deceased.”

Section 8(1) and 8(3), Abuse Redress Measure 2025.

Taking over an application starts with a written notification to the redress body, accompanied by a certified copy of the death certificate, evidence of who you are, and evidence of your relationship to the person who died. Where two or more children are entitled, they can continue the application jointly. Rule 7 of the Abuse Redress Rules 2025 sets these steps out where the application being continued was the survivor’s own; the Measure gives the same right to continue a dependant application, and a solicitor can confirm the steps that apply in that rarer case.

One deadline in Rule 7 deserves to be said clearly, because it falls in the hardest months. If the redress body learns of the applicant’s death and three months pass without anyone coming forward to continue the application, the application is dismissed. We know that after a funeral, a legal notification is the last thing on anyone’s mind. If you are anywhere near that position, a short call is enough to protect it, and a solicitor can send the notification for you.

There is also a route through the estate. The Rules allow the deceased’s personal representatives (the people dealing with the estate under a will or letters of administration) to take the application forward, where they applied for probate or administration within six months of the death, or within a longer period the redress body and the personal representatives agree between them, and are progressing it with reasonable diligence (Rule 7(7), Abuse Redress Rules 2025). So if six months have already passed, the door is not automatically shut; ask about agreeing a longer period before assuming the route is gone. Where personal representatives continue the application and an award is made, Rule 11(3) says the award forms part of the deceased’s residuary estate, distributed with the rest of the estate. Beyond that, the Rules do not say where an award lands, so treat anything firmer as a question for your solicitor rather than a promise from a web page.

No. A civil claim against the Church may exist alongside the scheme, and accepting a redress award means giving up the right to bring a civil claim for the same matter, so the choice deserves care. Winston Solicitors are specialists in the scheme route and do not advise on civil claims; for that, take independent advice from a solicitor with civil litigation experience in institutional abuse cases. Our scheme versus civil claim page compares the two routes.

Stacey on carrying a claim for someone else

“Families come to me holding two things at once, grief and a story that was never resolved,” says Stacey Flegg, Head of Church of England Redress Scheme at Winston Solicitors. “Some spent years watching what the abuse did to the person they loved. Others found a diary, or a letter, and learned all of it in one afternoon. Families like theirs were in the minds of the people who wrote the Measure. Section 6 exists because the harm did not stop at the person it was done to, and Section 6 exists so that a claim someone fought to bring does not die with them. The dependant route is narrow, the exceptional circumstances rule means I will never promise anyone an outcome, but I will always give a family an honest view of where they stand before they invest any hope in it. That first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.”

Winston Solicitors works specifically on the Church of England Redress Scheme, for survivors and families across England and Wales. That concentration is why the team is fluent in the quieter corners of the Measure, including the Section 4 and Section 6 provisions this page is built on.

This page asks you to hold grief and abuse in mind at the same time, and that is heavy. If you want to talk to someone right now, separately from any decision about a claim, the following organisations are there for that. They are independent of Winston Solicitors and independent of the Church of England.

• Cruse Bereavement Support. Free support for anyone grieving, however long ago the death was. Call 0808 808 1677 or visit cruse.org.uk.
• Samaritans. Free, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Call 116 123 from any phone in the UK, or email jo@samaritans.org.
• NAPAC, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood. Free support line for adult survivors of childhood abuse, and for family members trying to understand what a loved one went through. Call 0808 801 0331 or visit napac.org.uk.
• Safe Spaces. The Church of England and Catholic Church’s joint independent support service for survivors of church-related abuse. Confidential, and run independently of the Church’s own processes. Call 0300 303 1056 or visit safespacesenglandandwales.org.uk.

You do not need to be considering an application to use any of these services. They are there because the loss and the harm matter, whether or not you ever take a legal step.

There is no right timetable for any of this. Some families act within weeks of a death because a deadline demands it. Others sit with what they have learned for a long time first. Whenever you are ready, Stacey Flegg, Head of Church of England Redress Scheme at Winston Solicitors, will talk your situation through with you. The firm’s wider work carries over 4,000 five-star reviews, and the first conversation is free. You decide everything that happens after it.

These are the questions bereaved families most often ask about this part of the scheme. For broader questions about cost, evidence, and how the scheme works, see our scheme FAQ hub.