Plan If

Plan If is aimed at ALL parents.

Plan If helps you ensure that your children have the right conditions to provide stability and security if you were to die while they are still young.

If things haven't been sorted out in advance, this leaves many families unprepared for the future.

• A parent with children under 18 dies every 22 minutes in the UK.
• For people of parental age, at least one in four deaths is unexpected.
• One in sixteen year olds have had a parent die.

Plan if isnt meant to be morbid or to make you worry: it's about simple, practical things you can do this week, this month and this year to plan for your family's future. And once it's done, you can relax and get on with enjoying life.

Plan If is a campaign and linked resources that have been developed by the Childhood Bereavement Network (CBA) in order to help more bereaved children after a parent has died.

We beleive in the importance of parents making plans in case they die while their children are still young. Practical tasks, such as making a will, planning guardianship and having life insurance can take some of the uncertainty out of life after a parental death, and personal tasks, such as capturing family stories and writing letters  to children, can provide comfort if a parent dies.

We hope that Plan If will play a part in making society as a whole more aware of and prepared to talk about parental death and in that way, play a part in helping bereaved children and young people respond to a death.

The quick response to ‘why have a Plan If?’ is to ask if you are confident you know the answer to these questions:

• Who would my children live with if I died?
• Would my family have enough to live on? Would they, for example, be able to stay living in the same house; attend the same school; keep life going much the same?
• Who would inherit everything I own? Am I really sure about that?

There are many other important, personal reasons to put together your Plan If. You will find information to help you prepare all through the 'Plan If' website.