Death Resulting in Claiming of Bereavement Benefits
It was on the 25th of May when a carpenter died from a fall from the 9th floor of the new high-rise building being built at Katipunan Avenue. It was said that he was carrying a container full of cement when he tripped from a bundle of rope near his destination. The 9th floor was still open with no complete walls resulting to the fall of the man. The man was Joseph Castillo. He was 34 and one of the newly employed carpenters of the team. He landed flat on the ground and his colleagues didn’t bother on calling an ambulance but called the man’s wife. The wife didn’t believe it at first and thought his husband was making a bad joke about it but after a lot of persistent calls, she finally believed and went to the scene. His unexpected death brought sadness to all his colleagues and depression to his family.
Clarisse Castillo, the wife of the deceased, went to the benefits agency to help her claim her bereavement benefits since she lost her husband in an industrial injury. Once the agency heard of her request, they were up for it until they learned she still had two dependent children living with her. The agency suggested that she should get the Widowed Parents Allowance than the bereavement benefits. It would help her more and it would help her with the expenses in need of payment. She asked if she could get both but the agency replied that it was a rule that she could only get one benefit. Disheartened since she needed the money to help her and her children live, she insisted to get the two but in the end, she listened to agency and decided to only take the Widowed Parents Allowance.
