Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of Bereavement Support Payments in covering the (a) immediate and (b) ongoing costs faced by bereaved families.

There has been no recent assessment of the adequacy of Bereavement Support Payment covering (a) immediate and (b) on going costs to bereaved families. The Bereavement Support Payment qualitative research published in 2021 explored how the lump sum and the monthly payments were used.

Bereavement Support Payment is intended to help people through the immediate period following a bereavement. Where longer-term financial support is needed, benefits such as Universal Credit have been specifically designed to provide assistance with ongoing living costs. 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.