Death of a spouse or dependant

If you're a BC Public Service employee and have lost your spouse or a dependant child, there are benefits and services available to support you and your family.

On this page

• Bereavement and funeral leave
• Counselling support
• Initiate a life insurance claim
• Update your benefits coverage
• Update your beneficiary
• Resources
• Contact us

Bereavement and funeral leave

Two types of leave help and support you through the loss of a loved one.

Let your supervisor know you need to take bereavement or funeral leave.

Counselling support

Counselling support is available free of charge for employees and family members who resided with the deceased spouse or dependant.

To access this service, call 1-800-655-5004.

Initiate a life insurance claim

If you have Optional Spouse and Dependant Group Life Insurance or the optional family funeral benefit, please call AskMyHR: 1-877-277-0772 (option 1) or submit an AskMyHR (IDIR restricted) service request using the categories Myself (or) My Team or Organization > Leaving the Public Service > Death of an Employee

We will assist you with all the needed paperwork.

Update your benefits coverage

Please see table below for the applicable forms to update your benefits coverage.

BCGEU employees can also find forms in:

• Employee Self Service: access from home (ESS) (IDIR restricted)
• Employee Self Service: access from work (ESS) (IDIR restricted)

Update your beneficiary

To fully update your beneficiary, you need to mail your original Group Life Beneficiary Designation form to the Pay & Benefit Centre.

It's a legal document and your beneficiary will not be updated unless this step is completed.

Send your form to:

Pay and Benefit Service Centre
3980 Quadra Street,
Victoria, BC V8X 1J9