Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number of people who would become eligible for Bereavement Support Payment and (b) annual cost to the public purse if the contribution condition in section 31 of the Pensions Act 2014 were treated as satisfied where the deceased was incapable of work throughout their working life.

Producing robust estimates suitable for publication of the number of people who would become eligible for Bereavement Support Payment, or the associated annual cost to the public purse, in the circumstances described would require the Department to link several complex datasets and undertake extensive quality assurance and would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold.