Can a dependency claim be deducted from the gross value of the estate?

It was conceded by counsel for the Plaintiffs that the dependency claim under the Fatal Accidents Act has to be deducted from the gross value of the estate such that there is to be no double recovery. Implicit in this is the acceptance that dependency claims are notionally what the deceased would have provided by way of support had he survived, and must be viewed as an obligation. Also implicit in this is that a dependency claim has priority over the estate claim in the sense that if there were no realistic surplus after calculating a dependency claim, there could be no recovery under Duncan v. Baddeley.