Method statement

Step 1.   Work out the payments under the ABSTUDY scheme that would have become due to you during the bereavement lump sum period if:

  (a)   your partner had not died; and

  (b)   your partner had been under pension age; and

  (c)   immediately before your partner died, you and your partner had been neither an illness separated couple nor a respite care couple.

Step 2.   Work out how much of those payments would have been exempt in those circumstances.

Step 3.   Work out the payments under the ABSTUDY scheme or the Social Security Act 1991 that would have become due to your partner during the bereavement lump sum period if your partner had not died, even if the payments would not have been exempt.

Step 4.   Total the payments worked out at Steps 2 and 3: the result is the tax - free amount .