Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted any analysis of the appropriate level of payment for Funeral Support Payment since its introduction in 2019.
The Funeral Support Payment helps towards funeral costs, it is not intended to cover the full cost of a funeral.
There is a statutory duty to uprate the payment annually in line with inflation, unlike the UK Government equivalent which does not increase annually.
The Scottish Government published the Funeral Support Payment evaluation in July 2022, which found that the payment reduced the need for people to borrow money to arrange a funeral.
We are committed to continually improving Scottish benefits and last year made improvements to the payment, further supporting bereaved people.