There are various schemes within the social welfare system to assist families in dealing with death and funeral expenses. These include the payment of six weeks social welfare following the death of certain social welfare recipients or their spouse, the payment of a bereavement grant to insured people and their families and the payment of a funeral grant under the occupational injuries benefit.
Since this Government came into office, I have introduced a number of important changes to improve these arrangements. These include an enhanced bereavement grant of £500 in 1999; the introduction of a once-off payment of £1,000 payable to widows and widowers with dependent children who qualify for a widow-widower's contributory pension, one-parent family payment or a bereavement grant in Budget 2000; and a number of additional measures in the Social Welfare Act, 2000, to address the position where the six weeks after death payment was not made or was paid at a reduced amount.
No additional payment is made in cases where the deceased spouse was in receipt of an invalidity pension and the survivor was in receipt of an old age contributory pension in his or her own right, neither is a payment made in cases where both spouses were each in receipt of an invalidity pension in their own right.
However, the survivor in both instances, would be entitled to a bereavement grant of £500 and if the survivor had dependent children, he or she would also be entitled to a widowed parent's grant of £1,000. These arrangements will be kept under review in a budgetary context.
Question No. 322 answered with Question No. 44.
