PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(24 June 2025)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how people who are responsible for funeral costs and in receipt of a qualifying benefit have an application for a Social Fund Funeral Expenses Payment refused because of the family tests in the eligibility criteria in each of the last five years.

Asked by:
Dr Ellie Chowns (Green Party)

Table 1 shows the number of applicants responsible for funeral cost who were receipt of qualifying benefits but were refused a Funeral Expenses Payment due to the family test reasons below:

• There is a surviving partner
• There is a closer relative
• They are not a partner, friend or relative

Table 1: Funeral Expense Payments- Refusals linked to the Family Test

	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25
Number of Refusals	1,100	900	1,200	1,200	1,000

Notes:

- These figures have been estimated using unaudited internal DWP Management Information which is not quality assured to the same extent as Official / National statistics.

- These applicants are assumed to have been responsible for funeral costs and to have been in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

- Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.

Answered by:
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