“…the state still doesn't recognise polygamous relationships,”
Oh yes it does, provided they are contracted outside the UK. Not only that, keen to demonstrate its usual munificence with other people’s money, the government shells out benefits to additional “wives” of such set-ups. Here’s a briefing paper deposited in the House of Commons library in June 2017. (You probably need to copy and paste this into your browser as it links to a .pdf document):
researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05051/SN05051.pdf
And here’s a couple of extracts from it. Firstly, on recognition:
“Polygamous marriages which take place in another country, and are valid there, may be recognised as being valid in the UK.”
And on benefits:
“The basic position is that some benefits can be paid, in certain cases, in respect of more than one spouse. Rules enabling the payment of some benefits in respect of some polygamous marriages have been in force for some time; for example, in relation to Income Support, the current rules have applied since 1987.”
“For income-replacement benefits such as income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance and income-related employment and support allowance, the husband and first wife claim as a couple. Subsequent wives receive an additional sum which is less than the single person rate.”
As far as Bereavement Benefit (BB) goes the “DWP Decision Makers’ Guide” says this about spouses:
“A spouse is a person married in the conventional sense to the other spouse, including a same sex spouse , following a proper legally recognised ceremony.”
Since the Commons paper states that polygamous marriages are recognised it follows that a husband with multiple spouses will be entitled to BB for each one that dies and each wife will be entitled to BB when he dies.
Further than that, it will probably not be too long before polygamous marriages contracted in the UK will be countenanced (at least if this load of waffle, from the same Commons Paper, ever comes to pass):
“The Law Commission has also given initial consideration to the issue of religious marriages that are not legally valid. It published its scoping study in December last year setting out the parameters of a potential review of the law concerning how and where people can marry in England and Wales, following consultation with a wide range of religious organisations and other interested parties. The scoping study concluded that this was one of a number of issues that might be ameliorated through a fairer and more coherent framework for marriage.”
So, legal polygamous marriages are not long in the making and BB will be shelled out for all the combinations thereof.