Financial Assistance for Natural Death (Maharashtra Construction Workers Welfare Board)

What is the Financial Assistance for Natural Death scheme?

Financial Assistance for Natural Death is a death benefit run by the Maharashtra Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, the statutory board set up under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and functioning as an allied office of the Labour Department, Government of Maharashtra. The scheme pays Rs 2,00,000 to the legal heir of a registered construction worker who dies of natural causes.

According to the Board's welfare schemes list on mahabocw.in, the natural death benefit sits in the "Financial Assistance" group alongside the Rs 5,00,000 accidental death benefit, Rs 10,000 funeral assistance and the Rs 24,000 per year widow or widower pension. The scheme is commonly searched for under the Marathi umbrella name Bandhkam Kamgar Yojana, which is how construction workers in Maharashtra refer to the whole family of Board benefits.

The money does not come from general taxation. The Board is funded by a cess collected on construction cost from builders and contractors across Maharashtra, and that cess pool is what pays out death, education, health and marriage benefits to registered workers. This is why registration is the single gate that decides whether a family can claim.

What the scheme does

• Pays a one-time Rs 2,00,000 to the legal heir on natural death.
• Applies to workers registered with the Maharashtra BOCW Welfare Board.
• Is paid by direct bank transfer, not by cheque handed over at an office.
• Runs all year, the Board has announced no application window or last date.

Who is eligible for the natural death benefit?

The family can claim if:

• The deceased was a registered building and other construction worker with the Maharashtra BOCW Welfare Board, and the registration was live (renewed) at the time of death.
• The worker was between 18 and 60 years of age when registered, and had completed at least 90 days of construction work in the preceding 12 months, which is the Board's standing registration test.
• Death was from natural causes, certified by a competent medical authority.
• The claimant is the legal heir or recorded nominee, usually the spouse, and otherwise a child or parent established through a legal heir certificate.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• The worker was never registered with the Board. Working on a construction site is not by itself enough; the Board pays only against a registration number.
• The worker's registration had lapsed and was not renewed. Maharashtra BOCW registration carries a nominal Rs 1 annual subscription and must be kept current through the renewal module.
• The death was an accident at the workplace. That case is covered by the separate Rs 5,00,000 accidental death benefit, and a family cannot draw both for the same death.
• The claimant cannot establish legal heirship and no nomination exists on the worker's Board record.
• The worker was employed in a trade outside the 53 categories of construction and infrastructure work the Board recognises as eligible for registration.

What documents are required to claim Rs 2,00,000?

Families should keep three or four photocopies of the death certificate. The same certificate is required again for the funeral assistance claim of Rs 10,000 and, if the spouse survives, for the widow pension of Rs 24,000 a year.

How to apply for the natural death benefit online

1. Open the Board's worker portal at iwbms.mahabocw.in and go to the Claim Management section, then Claim Main Form.
2. Enter the deceased worker's registration number and Aadhaar number, and verify with the OTP sent to the registered mobile number.
3. Select Financial Assistance for Natural Death from the list of schemes available against that registration.
4. Fill in the claimant's details: name, relationship to the worker, address, bank account number and IFSC code.
5. Upload the scanned death certificate, legal heir certificate, claimant's Aadhaar and bank passbook. Keep each file within the size limit the form displays.
6. Submit the claim and save the acknowledgement number shown on screen. This number is the only way to track the claim later.
7. Track progress under the claim status option on the same portal, using the acknowledgement number.

How to apply offline

1. Visit the district Labour Office or the local BOCW facilitation centre in your district with the original death certificate and the worker's registration card.
2. Ask for the claim form for the natural death benefit and fill it in with the claimant's bank details.
3. Attach self-attested copies of the death certificate, legal heir certificate, Aadhaar and bank passbook, and submit the set at the counter.
4. Collect the stamped acknowledgement. Ask the clerk for the claim reference number so the file can be traced.

Offline filing matters here because the person claiming is often a widow with no smartphone and no experience of government portals. The district Labour Office is the correct place to go, not a private agent.

How do you check the claim status?

Maharashtra BOCW claim status is checked on iwbms.mahabocw.in using the acknowledgement number issued when the claim was submitted. The portal shows whether the claim is pending scrutiny, returned for a document, approved, or paid. If the status has not moved for several weeks, call the Board's toll-free number 1800-8892-816, which operates from 10:00 to 18:00, or email support@mahabocw.in quoting the acknowledgement number.

Why natural death claims get rejected

• Registration lapsed, the most common single reason. The worker was registered years ago but the annual renewal was never done.
• Cause of death mismatch — a certificate showing accidental or workplace death filed under the natural death head, or the reverse.
• Legal heir not established, several relatives claiming, with no succession certificate and no nomination on record.
• Bank details do not match. The account is in a different name, or the IFSC is wrong, so the transfer fails.
• Illegible uploads. A phone photo of a folded death certificate that the scrutiny officer cannot read.
• Duplicate claim. The same death already claimed under the accidental death or funeral head with conflicting details.

Most of these are fixable. A returned claim can be resubmitted on the same portal with the corrected document rather than starting a fresh application.

Related benefits the family should claim at the same time

Maharashtra's BOCW Board treats each benefit as a separate claim, so a family that files only the Rs 2,00,000 claim often leaves money unclaimed. Alongside natural death assistance, a family can file for funeral assistance of Rs 10,000, the widow or widower benefit of Rs 24,000 a year for five years, and assistance for transporting the body to the worker's native village by hearse. Children of the deceased worker may still be eligible for the Board's education benefits already sanctioned for that academic year.

Where to raise a grievance

• Toll-free helpline: 1800-8892-816, 10:00 to 18:00
• Email: support@mahabocw.in
• Query form: available under the More section on mahabocw.in
• District Labour Office: for physical verification disputes and delays

Registration and claims with the Maharashtra BOCW Welfare Board cost Rs 1 for registration and Rs 1 as annual subscription. No agent is authorised to charge a family a percentage of the Rs 2,00,000 death benefit for filing the claim.