Asked by: Carla Denyer (Green Party - Bristol Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the value of the Bereavement Support payment.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Bereavement Support Payment is intended to help people through the immediate period following a bereavement. It is not a cost-of-living benefit like Universal Credit, which is generally increased in line with inflation. The rate of Bereavement Support Payment is reviewed on a discretionary basis as part of the annual uprating process, but there is no legal requirement to uprate it.
Whilst we have no plans to uprate BSP from April, the Government keeps all benefits including Bereavement Support Payments, under review.
Asked by: Carla Denyer (Green Party - Bristol Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to uprate Bereavement Support Payments annually in line with inflation.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Bereavement Support Payment is intended to help people through the immediate period following a bereavement. It is not a cost-of-living benefit like Universal Credit, which is generally increased in line with inflation. The rate of Bereavement Support Payment is reviewed on a discretionary basis as part of the annual uprating process, but there is no legal requirement to uprate it.
Whilst we have no plans to uprate BSP from April, the Government keeps all benefits including Bereavement Support Payments, under review.
Asked by: Carla Denyer (Green Party - Bristol Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2024 to Question 16304 on Pension Credit: South Derbyshire, how many pensioner households in receipt of Housing Benefit and identified as potentially entitled to but not claiming Pension Credit her Department has targeted in Bristol Central constituency; and how many of those pensioner households have since claimed Pension Credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
102 pensioner households were targeted in the Bristol Central constituency as part of the Invitation to Claim initiative. The letters sent to these households encourage them to claim Pension Credit by 21 December which is the latest date for making a successful backdated claim and still receive a Winter Fuel payment.
Data on the number of claims received from the households targeted as part of the initiative, and the number of awards made will be established once the Department has completed processing all those applications and the necessary analysis is completed.