Bereavement support payment, widowed parent's allowance and cohabitees

Early day motion 217, tabled 21 June 2021 by Liz Saville-Roberts (Plaid Cymru). Signed by 16 members.

That this House calls for the extension of the Bereavement Support Payment and Widowed Parent's Allowance to people who were cohabiting but were not married or in a civil partnership; notes that judgments from the matter of an application by Siobhan Mclaughlin for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2018] UKSC 48 and R (Jackson & Others) v SSWP [2020] EWHC 183, found that denying co-habiting parents the payments constitutes a breach of human rights and is not a proportional means of promoting marriage; further notes it has been nearly a year since the Government outlined its intention to take forward a Remedial Order to remove the incompatibilities of an extension from the legislation governing Bereavement Support Payment Widowed Parent’s Allowance; and calls on the Government to swiftly fulfil the judgments of the courts to fix this manifestly unjust situation which affects some 2,000 families with children annually.

Signatures by party: Labour 3, Plaid Cymru 3, Scottish National Party 3, Alba 2, Independent 2, DUP 1, Green 1, Labour/Co-operative 1.