'Someone has to make a stand': widow's battle for cohabiting couples

Siobhan McLaughlin’s case goes before supreme court as pressure grows to end legal inequality

A widow in Belfast is taking the government to the supreme court over bereavement payments, as ministers come under increasing pressure to readdress the law on cohabiting couples.

Siobhan McLaughlin, 46, had four children with her partner, John Adams, who she had lived with for more than 20 years. But when Adams died in 2014, McLaughlin was denied a £2,000 lump sum bereavement payment as well as a weekly widowed parent allowance, which could be up to £118 a week. At that point, their children were 19,17, 13 and 11.

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