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Written question asked by Ruth Cadbury (Labour) on Friday, 2 September 2022, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 8 September 2022 (named day). It was answered by Julie Marson (Conservative) on Thursday, 8 September 2022 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Beareavement Support Payment

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of people who would be eligible to receive Bereavement Support Payments each year if people who had been cohabiting before one partner died but who were not married or in a civil partnership were entitled to receive such payments.

Answer

We do not have an estimate of the total number of people who would be eligible to receive BSP each year if people who had been cohabiting before one partner died but who were not married or in a civil partnership were entitled to receive such payments.

We have published estimates of the number of bereaved cohabiting partners who would receive BSP, if eligibility were extended to cohabitees – that is, those surviving cohabiting partners who we estimate would claim BSP if they were to become eligible. This is given below and was published in January 2020 as part of an ad hoc statistical release.

Table 1: Estimated number of bereaved cohabiting partners who would receive BSP, if eligibility were extended to cohabitees

Year

Total

2022 to 2023

15,000

2023 to 2024

15,000

2024 to 2025

15,000

The numbers in Table 1 are rounded to the nearest 5,000.

Source: Figures taken from DWP ad hoc statistical release and can be found at found at:

Bereavement Support Payment:forecast on the effect ofextending eligibility to cohabitees, April 2020 to March 2025 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
45430
Session
2022-23
Subjects
Cohabitation Eligibility Bereavement support payment
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk