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Widow C Pension, 1942 to 1989, Widowed Person Allowance, 1989 to 1995, Bereavement Allowance from 1995

Milestones	Details
1942 June	As part of a broader scheme of widows’ pensions, a weekly temporary allowance of £1.5s. introduced for widows aged under 50 years without dependent children and paid during first 26 weeks after husband’s death. De facto widows who had lived with deceased partner for at least three years prior to his death also eligible. Claimants required to be resident in Australia and have resided in Australia continuously for five years immediately prior to application. Aliens and indigenous people of Australia, Africa, the Pacific and New Zealand ineligible. Exclusion did not apply to Aboriginal people who were exempt from state laws 'relating to the control of Aboriginal natives' or who lived in a state where such exemptions did not exist and who were eligible on grounds of 'character, intelligence and development'. A hardship test applied. Widows with liquid assets above £50 (after payment of funeral expenses) ineligible. Allowance paid four-weekly in arrears and rate adjusted quarterly according to movements in Retail Price Index.
1942 July	Temporary Allowance exempted from income tax.
1944 April	Quarterly rates adjustment abolished.
1947 July	Temporary Allowance renamed Widow C Pension (WidC) and paid fortnightly.
1950 August	Pensioner Medical Service scheme providing free general practitioner services and medicines introduced.
1952 September	WidC recipients pregnant to deceased husbands eligible for WidC until they gave birth. Residency requirement reduced to one year where the couple were living permanently in Australia at time of husband’s death.
1958 October	Supplementary Assistance of 10 shillings per week available to widows paying rent.
1960 February	Most restrictions on eligibility of Aboriginal people removed.
1968 September	Residency requirement removed where widow and her husband had been permanent residents at time of husband’s death.
1969 September	Women widowed outside Australia eligible for pension on returning to Australia if had lived in Australia for ten years continuously at any time.
1975 October	Widows in de facto relationships ineligible for WidC.
1976 July	WidC subject to income tax.
1976 November	Automatic six-monthly rate increases in May and November, in line with movements in CPI, introduced for basic pension rate.
1978 November	Automatic rate increases made annually in November.
1980 May	Automatic rate increases once again made every six months in May and November.
1986 December	Rate increases occurred in December and June rather than May and November as had previously been the case.
1989 March WidC replaced by Widowed Person's Allowance	WidC replaced by Widowed Person's Allowance (WPA). Widowed people, male and female, eligible for WPA for 14 weeks after spouse’s death. Widows pregnant at time of spouse’s death eligible for WPA until child’s birth. De facto widows also eligible. No other pension, benefit or allowance could be paid concurrently. Pension assets and income tests applied.
1993 April	Eligibility for fringe benefits (concession cards) extended to all part-rate pensioners.
1995 January WPA renamed Bereavement Allowance	Widowed Person's Allowance renamed Bereavement Allowance (BA). Refugees not required to live in Australia for a set period to qualify for BA.
2000 July GST compensation	Pension rate increased as part of a package of measures to compensate for impact of GST introduction. A pension supplement equivalent to four per cent of maximum rate at July 2000 paid to all pensioners. Indexation provisions adjusted so that half of four per cent increase was an advance on whatever rate increase occurred in March 2001. Increased rate provided as a supplement so that it would not be included when pension rate was adjusted in line with benchmark of 25 per cent of Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE). This ensured that maximum rate of pension plus supplement would always be more than 25 per cent of MTAWE.
2007 August Income management	Allowances could be subject to income management in Northern Territory and Cape York. Income management involved diversion of 50 per cent of a recipient’s income support into an account that could only be drawn on to pay for priority needs, such as food, clothes and rent.
2008 December	Recipients received economic security strategy payments of $1400—part of the Economic Security Strategy to boost the economy after the GFC.
2009 July	Definition of ‘member of a couple’ changed to include same-sex couples.
2009 September Secure and sustainable pension reform	Maximum rate increased by $30 per week. Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index used to adjust pension rates in September and March each year, when it produces a larger increase than CPI.
2010	The 25 per cent of average weekly earnings benchmark used to ensure that single pension rates kept pace with earnings growth was adjusted to take account of the September 2009 increase in the pension rate. That increase had pushed the single rate well above the existing benchmark. A new benchmark was set for the combined Age Pension couple rate at 41.67 per cent of MTAWE. Single rate benchmarked at 66.33 per cent of couple rate (effectively 27.7 per cent of MTAWE).
2010 April	Disadvantaged income support recipients able to receive payments weekly rather than fortnightly.
2012 January	Those who qualified for Parenting Payment (Partnered) also eligible for BA on partner’s death.
2012 April	Clean Energy Advance paid to compensate pensioners for the expected impact of Carbon Tax.

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