§ 59. Mr. Wallaceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what provision he will make following the implementation of the White Paper on social security reform for funeral costs incurred by those not in receipt of family credit, housing benefit or income support.
§ Mr. NewtonOur aim, as set out in the White Paper, is to help people on low incomes who are unable to meet the reasonable cost of a funeral for which they are responsible. To minimise detailed questioning of applicants, we intend to take receipt of income support, family credit or housing benefit as an indication of low income. We are at present considering whether it would be possibble to extend help in exceptional cases to any other applicants on comparably low incomes—for example, because they had not claimed one of the qualifying benefits—without introducing a system which entailed intrusive questioning and complex administration.