Bereavement allowance discriminates against non-married couples, High Court rules

THE Government’s new bereavement allowance “unjustifiably discriminates” against non-married couples and their children, the High Court has ruled.

Currently, higher bereavement support payments may be payable to the surviving parent if their spouse or civil partner dies and they have at least one dependent child. It cannot be paid if their non-married cohabitee or noncivil partner dies, even if they have lived together for decades.

However, following the landmark ruling in London yesterday, Mr Justice Holman found that the current legislation “unjustifiably discriminates” against parents who are not married or in civil partnerships and their children.

He declared that the rules, enshrined in the Pensions Act 2014, are incompatible with human rights laws.

Mr Justice Holman said there are a “legally significant number of [other] cases” and the families bringing the case were not in such “isolated or extreme circumstances that they can be ignored as simply a very rare ‘hard case’ on the wrong side of a bright line”.

He added: “The line has been deliberately drawn to exclude them and a legally significant number of others.”

The ruling comes after two fathers who were refused bereavement support payments following the deaths of their long-term partners brought their case against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) yesterday and won.

The case was brought by James Jackson, of Nottingham, and Kevin Simpson, of Chester, who were refused the bereavement support payment for their families after their partners died.

The fathers, both aged 40, also brought the case on behalf of their children and were represented by the Child Poverty Action Group charity.

The Government now faces calls to change the law on financial support for unmarried parents whose partners die. The DWP said: “We will be considering the judgment very carefully.”