BISHOP Christopher has urged the government to be more compassionate on welfare reforms for families in crisis.

Bishop Christopher

The bishop told the House of Lords that amendments to the regulations on welfare support for families coping with the bereavement of a parent, sibling or carer didn’t go far enough.

Previously bereaved parents and those affected by domestic violence or abuse were given three months paid leave from work or searching for work, but following a ministerial review this has been doubled to six months.

In addition surviving parents are now entitled to up to an additional one month off every six months for two years.

The welfare regulation is called the universal credit conditionality. The review was conducted by welfare reform minister Lord Freud.

The bishop, who knows first-hand the challenges facing bereaved parents, urged the government not to be strictly bound by the regulations but instead to treat each parent as an individual.

“In my case the death of my wife, Julia, left me the sole parent of two teenage children,” he said.

“I had the advantage of being in a secure post, of being an office-holder with understanding colleagues - not even an employee - and under no pressure to fulfil specific requirements to maintain my income.

“Nevertheless you will understand the range of everyday reactions - sadness, guilt, sleep difficulties, anger for instance, which may sound modest or even trivial but have significant consequences in combination in yourself and in dependent children - and to these we need to add the clinical range of emotional and behavioural difficulties that arise in children, particularly in the two to three years following death.

“These are potentially debilitating in themselves and inhibit development. They also raise the likelihood, as various studies show, of depression, clinical anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, learning underachievement and even suicide with significant cost to society.

“I know how quickly a surviving parent must adjust to their new role. My Lords, even for those of us in fortunate and supportive circumstances, this is 'a big ask'.

“And I say that not with the flippancy of the sports' commentator, but from personal experience. The surviving parent must be able to respond flexibly and quickly, which includes being physically present.

“I recognise, of course, that every situation is different but I doubt if the proposal to be relieved of obligations for six months and then for intermittent periods of one month at, at best, every six months for two years is realistic.

“I do welcome the implicit understanding that the impact of bereavement of a parent, carer or sibling may unpredictably arise over a two year period or longer. That is a helpful acknowledgement for which I thank the minister.

“I suggest that the six month respite may be an impediment to a bereaved family's recovery and healing as it hangs like a threat for the parent, particularly if he or she were home-based and non-earning for some time or had withdrawn from work to care for a sick or dying partner or child.

“I recognise that in many, perhaps most instances parents will seek to return to work - and normality as it sometimes unhelpfully put. I hope that even at this stage the minister would consider at the very least more generosity in the initial suspension of conditionally and flexibility in the ad hoc easements he proposes.

“To monitor this and to offer support - and I hope it is not too much to expect in these circumstances a pastoral touch rather than a rigorous adherence to rules - I suggest that periodic interviews giving advice, supportive rather than coercive, would be entirely right.

“To expect that every widower or widow would be ready after six months to return to work or an active monitored search for work, with up to four further months one by one, suggests a punitive approach to those who have suffered through no action of their own.

“I know the sadness and the disorientation of bereavement and I hope the government would acknowledge that more generously for this.

“In this of all circumstances, surely encouragement is more appropriate than compulsion. I enjoyed that, and benefitted from it with my children, and I believe others should as well.”