Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have claimed (a) Widowed Parent's Allowance and (b) the Bereavement Support Payment since the eligibility of those payments was extended to surviving cohabiting partners with dependent children who were not in a legal union with the deceased on the date of death.

We cannot currently accept claims for Widowed Parent’s Allowance or Bereavement Support Payment from those who were not in a legal union with their deceased partner. This is because the draft Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order, which proposes to extend eligibility for these benefits to surviving cohabiting partners with dependent children, has not yet become law. We laid the draft Order in Parliament on 13 October 2022. It will lay in Parliament for a 60-day period, and will need to be debated and voted upon in both Houses of Parliament before it can become law.