Mr. Christopher Bowes:

It is quite unusual. Usually within the social welfare legislation, a person is deemed to be married on the basis of his or her legal status as being married. That would be accepted and it is certainly the way the widower's pension has operated for more than 20 years now. This is an unusual condition that stipulates that, as well as being married, people have to prove that they are in an intimate and committed relationship. The members of the committee will be aware that, when a person applies for a social welfare payment, the obligation is on the claimant to establish that he or she meets the conditions. This legislation would effectively put in place a system whereby someone who has recently suffered a bereavement - even if he or she was married or living in the same house as the deceased partner - would have to establish to the Department that, in the two years before the partner died, they were living in an intimate and committed relationship.

There is scope in the legislation for the Minister to create exceptions. For example, where someone was in a hospital for an extended period, they could still be considered as living together for the purpose of the legislation. An exception is carved out in that regard but as a general rule, there will now be an obligation on not just people who are cohabitants but also those who are married or in a civil partnership to meet these requirements and establish that they were not separated but were living together in an intimate and committed relationship at the point of death of their partner to become entitled to this payment.