§ Mr. Staintonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement about the increase from 70 per cent. in 1973 to 84 per cent. in 1974 and 87 per cent. in 1975 of deaths in Great Britain where the death grant has been paid and on the large number of deaths 180W where this is still not apparently claimed and/or paid.
§ Mr. OrmeI cannot accept the hon. Member's figures. The proportion of deaths in respect of which a grant was paid was 94.7 per cent. in 1973, 93.7 per cent. in 1974, and 96.3 per cent. in 1975. The increase in 1975 coincided with an easing of the contribution conditions for the grant. The number of deaths in 1975 for which no grant was paid was 21,300; no sub-division of this figure is available between cases where the conditions for the grant were not satisfied—normally because the person concerned had already reached pensionable age in 1948—and those where a grant would have been payable, had it been claimed.