Dwyfor-Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville Roberts has held “high-level talks” with the UK government in a bid to overturn a policy which discriminates against bereaved families and left a grieving Pwllheli man “faced with a barrage of red tape”.

The MP has called on the UK Government to scrap a loophole in Bereavement Support Payments which sees unmarried couples not entitled to the benefit.

Earlier this year, Ms Saville Roberts took up the case of Arwel Pritchard of Pwllheli, who lost his fiancée Donna McClelland, the mother of his two children Cian and Danial, to cancer last May.

The Cambrian News reported that following the death of his partner of 24 years, Mr Pritchard faced “huge hurdles” and a “barrage of red tape” before being refused Bereavement Support Payment because he was not married to Donna, an accountant in Porthmadog.

Bereavement Support Payment is a benefit paid to widows, widowers, or surviving civil partners.

It replaces Bereavement Allowance, Widowed Parents Allowance and Bereavement Payment for people whose husband or wife died on or after 6 April 2017.

It consists of an initial lump-sum followed by up to 18 monthly instalments, but it is still not available for those with long-term partners who are not married.

The MP said:“The government is not above the law, and children are still being treated with inequality in the most tragic circumstances.”

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