Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason her Department does not pay bereavement support to widows and widowers where tacit consent to marriage with their former partner was not given but where the material circumstances of their relationship were the same as those of a married couple.

Marriage and civil partnerships are legal contracts that are associated with certain rights, including inheritance, recognition in the tax system and entitlement to certain benefits.

A key principle of the National Insurance system is that all rights to benefits derived from another person’s contributions, such as bereavement benefits, are based on the concept of legal marriage or civil partnership.

Under Scottish law, in certain circumstances, a person can be classed as married by cohabitation with habit and repute. Marriage by habit and repute was abolished for new relationships in 2006 by the Family Law (Scotland) Act. Marriages deemed to have been constituted prior to the 4 May 2006 are still recognised as such for benefit purposes.