Bereavement Support and Energy Vouchers

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 825 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the first time unmarried parents will be entitled to bereavement benefits after a change in law was passed this week. Until now these benefits have only been given to a bereaved spouse or civil partner. It comes more than four years since the Supreme Court ruled that denying them benefits was unlawful under the European Convention on Human Rights. The change will be backdated to the the day of that judgement 30 August 2018. We'll explain how it works and who can claim.

Nearly a third of the vouchers issued to people on prepayment energy meters so they can access the government's Energy Bills Support Scheme have not been claimed according to figures released this week. It means more than a million households on the lowest incomes struggling to pay their energy bills are missing out on £400 of financial support offered this winter by the government. We'll investigate why that's happening, and what you should do if you haven't claimed yours.

New figures from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs reveal that £5.3 billion was generated from inheritance tax, from April to December last year. That’s £700 million more than in the same period a year earlier. We'll explain how it works and who it applies to.

Plus a reminder that the deadline to fill out you Self Assessment tax return is in just a few days time. (31st January 2023)

Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Dan Whitworth Researchers: Sandra Hardial and Jo Krasner Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 12pm, Saturday 28th January, 2023)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.5	I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.2	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,
0:16.0	relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.
0:22.4	So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,
0:28.3	and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.
0:33.6	So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:39.5	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:43.1	Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast.
0:46.1	Over £116 million of help with fuel bills remains unused by people with prepayment metres.
0:52.8	What can they do to get the help promised?
0:55.3	And HMRC reveals record receipts from inheritance tax in the last nine months, as house prices
1:00.6	rose and the threshold where it begins stays frozen. Are there safe ways to reduce its impact
1:06.5	on our loved ones? But now, for the first time, unmarried parents under pension age whose
1:12.4	partner dies will be entitled to bereavement benefits after a change in the law passed
1:17.5	this week. Until now, these benefits have only been given to a bereaved spouse or civil partner.
1:23.8	Parliament approved the change on Wednesday, more than four years since the Supreme Court ruled that denying unmarried parents these benefits was unlawful under the European Convention on Human Rights.
1:35.3	The change will be backdated to the day of that judgment, 30th of August 2018, and tens of thousands of unmarried parents whose partner has died will be able to claim the benefits they should have had back to that date. In future, every year, well over a thousand unmarried parents, under pension age whose partner dies, will be entitled to benefits worth nearly £10,000. The original case was brought by Shevorn McLaughlin, who lived in Northern Ireland. The judgment was given by Lady Hale, then the President of the Supreme Court.
2:08.7	The question in this case is whether, when one parent dies leaving young children, the other parent should be able to claim a social security benefit known as
2:19.5	widowed parents allowance, even though the parents were not married to one another.
2:25.1	She concluded, where as here, the deceased was father to the children, the relevant legislation
2:31.3	is clearly incompatible with the Convention Rights.
	...

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