Tory peer challenges Government over bereavement benefit reforms

The Government has faced cross-party criticism over changes to bereavement benefits, with peers urging ministers to think again.
The House of LordsThe House of Lords
The House of Lords

Former Conservative pensions minister Baroness Altmann led the criticism, as she claimed the reforms are being made at “the expense” of parents with young children”.

Addressing ministers in the House of Lords, the Tory peer acknowledged the old system needed modernising and the new scheme had “some advantages”.

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But she said the reforms were designed to “cut” £100 million from welfare spending for bereavement, and bereaved partners without children would get more “at the expense of significantly reduced support for those with young children”.

The new Bereavement Support Payment will replace a suite of bereavement benefits and provide bereaved parents with an initial lump sum and up to 18 monthly payments.

Under current legislation, widowed parents can receive payments until their youngest child leaves school.

Lady Altmann urged ministers to reconsider the reforms by “extending support for bereaved children beyond the inadequate 18 months”. “What is our national insurance welfare state for if not to support families properly in such tragic circumstances,” she asked.

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Work and pensions minister Lord Henley said the new Bereavement Support Payment was intended to help people with the immediate additional costs of bereavement.

He also rejected the claims the changes amounted to cuts, and explained that the Government had consulted on the changes, made amendments to the regulations before they were introduced and would review them in due course.