Caroline Booth, a Halifax-born business professional, is spearheading a national campaign to reform Bereavement Support Payment (BSP)—a benefit she says is “morally indefensible” in its current form and failing thousands of grieving families.
Caroline’s fight is not for herself, but for principle and justice. After losing her husband Steve to cancer in May 2025 after 25 years marriage, she discovered that the financial support available to widowed parents is shockingly inadequate. Steve worked until the day before he died, paying National Insurance contributions for nearly 35 years as a higher rate tax payer —yet the support widows receives is capped at just 18 months.
Steve was an accountant at BM Howarth Chartered Accountants in Halifax and together Caroline and Steve had two boys Matthew 16 and Harry 14, and had been married over 25 years, meeting at work when Caroline was 16.
“In the eight months we knew Steve was terminally ill, he paid more in National Insurance than I will ever receive in bereavement support,” Caroline explains. “This isn’t about me—it’s about fairness. Our partners paid in for decades believing their families would be protected as BSP is an earned right through NI contributions. That promise was broken when the rules were changed.”
Caroline, who holds two Master’s degrees, is a Fellow of the Association of Accounting Technicians and a Chartered Manager, is taking her fight to the highest levels.
Now, the Widows Fight team (formed of widows who all put themselves forward to work alongside Caroline after seeing her start the campaign), have made some POWERFUL MOVEMENTS towards change.
Caroline started by writing to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, appearing on national radio after the Autumn Budget, and mobilising members of WAY (Widowed and Young) to send coordinated letters to MPs across the country. Since then television appearances, radio interviews, social media backing country wide with post reach in the 100ks and views of 1 million.
Caroline coordinated a peaceful protest at Parliament Square and now that the petition has reached 108,000+ signatures (hitting the 100,000 target with over 2 weeks left to go!) preparations are underway for the in person hand in at 10 Downing Street.
And this is only the beginning....
