Clause 49
Welfare Reform Bill
6:15 pm
Anne McGuire (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Disabled People), Department for Work and Pensions; Stirling, Labour)
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments on both clauses 49 and 50, which are linked. He is right: it is an improvement on the current situation. The arrangement is to withdraw child dependency increases as part of the move to child tax credits. The exact provision had not been made, and we have used this Bill to tidy that up.
With regard to entitlement to bereavement grants and the three-month cut-off, if memory serves—a few of us here were around in the 1997-2001 Parliament—there was some debate of that issue at that time. It was accepted by the House that we should have a three-month period when the bereavement grants would be considered and after that there would be a cut-off. I will not give any definitive comment at the moment and I will get back to the hon. Gentleman about that particular issue.