Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-07-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reason his Department’s consultation on infected blood, published in January 2016, did not include proposals on provisions for widows or dependants of people whose blood has been infected; and if he will make it his policy to grant non means tested discretionary payments to widows and dependants of people who have died due to contaminated blood transfusions.

Jane Ellison

Currently, all bereaved family members can apply to one or more of the three scheme charities for discretionary support. However, only some bereaved partners/spouses receive regular financial support.

The consultation on reforming the current payment schemes sought views on whether those bereaved partners/spouses who receive regular support would prefer a lump sum payment or continued access to a discretionary scheme.

The consultation did not make any new proposals for dependants who do not receive regular financial support from the charities.

Consultation responses have been analysed and the Government’s response to this consultation will be published soon.