Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 December 2014 to Question 217981, if he will revise the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme fund so that people who were diagnosed with diffuse mesothelioma before 25 July 2012, or eligible dependents of such people where that eligible person has died, also receive the support provided to eligible people who were diagnosed after that date.

The eligibility date was set as 25th July 2012 as this was the date that the Government announced it would legislate for a payment scheme, thereby creating a reasonable expectation that eligible people diagnosed with mesothelioma on or after that date would receive a payment.

If there was no start date, and the scheme paid people diagnosed in the past, the costs of the scheme would be prohibitively expensive.