Widows' bereavement allowance

[DutchOma]

Laura Moyns started a petition in June which attracted 506 signatures, including mine.
I have just seen the government's 'answer' here

Am I alone in thinking that this just repeats what Laura Moyns agitates against without making any allowances or changes in their policy?

Hi there - I got the response which I thought was extraordinary in its failure to answer the point. It spent 2.5 of the 3 paragraphs setting out the position and then concluded by saying that child support is paid for the child, and WPA is paid for the parent. And that's why they're treated differently for tax purposes .

If you have a child, you're a parent, so what's the difference between the two exactly? WPA is paid to widowed parents because there is one parent lacking to provide support. Child support is paid by one parent to continue supporting the child. Again seems to be the same argument.

I am really angry that the answer has been a complete brush-off rather than at least a cogently argued point. When you consider that WPA is linked to NI contributions, you could argue that it arises from taxes already paid. To tax it again is somewhat unfair.