- Target:
- HM Government London
- Region:
- United Kingdom
Our son Archie was born at 23 weeks + 2 days and lived for 50 minutes. By law we had to register his birth and death and also have a cremation for him.
We applied for financial help from the social fund and was told over the phone when applied for it that everything was fine. We then arranged Archie's funeral and it went ahead.
We received a letter after the funeral saying they cannot make a funeral payment for the following reason: The social fund regulations state that we can only pay for a funeral of a baby if the term of pregnancy is more than 24 weeks. There is nowhere on the social fund claim form or on the direct.gov website that says the above regulation, only says you must be one of the following: the partner of the deceased when they died, a close relative or friend of the deceased, the parent of the stillborn baby, the parent of the child if under 16 (or under 20 and not in full-time education).
The law states if a baby is born showing signs of life then subsequently dies must have their birth and death registered and also have a funeral or cremation.
Archie was born alive before dying and we are a parent of a child under 16 years so what is the problem?
We are wanting to get the regulation changed that says financial help cannot be given for babies born under 24 weeks to have a proper funeral. This rule cant be found in any literature from the social fund.
Our son Archie was born at 23 weeks + 2 days and lived for 50 minutes so we had to register his birth then his death and have a funeral. Babies are being born at 23 weeks and now surviving so this regulation needs changing.
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The Financial help for funerals for babies born under 24 weeks petition to HM Government London was written by Deborah Hart and is in the category Government at GoPetition.