York dad slams delay in equal help for widowers

Frank Healy, 46, of Dringhouses, is one of thousands of widowers across Britain who will benefit from the Government's decision to extend the old widow's pension to widowed men with children.

The father-of-two welcomed the announcement, but was dismayed that payments will not be made until April 2001.

"If I need to buy my children new shoes, it costs me £40. I can't tell them they will have to wait until 2001 to get some," he said.

He also believed bereaved fathers should get back-payments for the years since their wives died.

He said he and his two sons Scott and Stuart had had to survive on a student grant after his wife Linda died four years ago, when their younger child was just three.

If it had not been for help from family, friends and charities, they would not have coped, he says. "Some of the financial restraints that we have been living under is something that nobody can be totally prepared for."

The new widowed parents allowance, announced on Wednesday by Social Secretary Alastair Darling, will be payable to parents of both sexes who have lost their spouses and who have dependent children. Newly-widowed women without children will not be paid the benefit.

The allowance comes to £64 per week plus £9 for the first child and £11 for subsequent children. People on income support will receive the first £10 of the allowance.

The move comes after years of campaigning by widowers including Mr Healy, who argue that it is discriminatory for widowed men to be denied the benefit given to widowed women.

The European Court of Human Rights is expected to rule in their favour shortly.

Mr Healy welcomed the decision to double the lump sum payment to £2,000 paid to spouses within four days of their wife's or husband's deaths, saying that financial matters are the last thing on families' minds at that time.

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