Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report published on 6 December 2022 by the Joint Committee on Human Rights into the draft Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2022, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of (a) the Committee's disappointment that it does not take effect from the date of the original High Court decision from 2016 in the case of Siobhan McLaughlin and (b) the Committee's recommendation that the Government consider offering payments to cover claimants who will not receive benefits as a result of the cut-off date in the remedial order.

The Department welcomes the JCHR report on the draft Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2022 and the Committee’s recommendation that the draft Order be approved. The draft Remedial Order proposes 30 August 2018 as the start date because that was when the incompatibility for Widowed Parents Allowance was accepted as final in the Supreme Court. It is not routine for Social Security changes to be made retrospectively, and to use an earlier date, or make additional payments via a new scheme, would bring extra administrative complexity and costs to the taxpayer.