FOURTH SECTION
FINAL DECISION
AS TO THE ADMISSIBILITY OF
Application no. 27972/02
by Alan CHURCHILL
against the United Kingdom
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 29 April 2008 as a Chamber composed of:
Lech Garlicki, President,
Nicolas Bratza,
Giovanni Bonello,
Ljiljana Mijović,
Ján Šikuta,
Päivi Hirvelä,
Ledi Bianku, judges,
and Lawrence Early, Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 24 October 2001,
Having regard to the partial decision of 12 November 2002,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
THE FACTS
The applicant, Mr Alan Churchill, is a British national who was born in 1938 and lives in Somerset. He was represented before the Court by Royds Rdw, solicitors in London. The United Kingdom Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr C. Whomersley of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
A. The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
The applicant’s wife died on 1 August 1991. On 30 January 2001, the applicant made a claim for widows’ benefits. On 9 April 2001 the applicant was sent a further application form under the new system in place as from 9 April 2001. He duly completed and returned the application form on 17 April 2001. On 30 April 2001 the applicant was informed that his claim had been disallowed as he was not entitled to the benefits at issue because his wife had died before 9 April 2001.
The applicant did not appeal further as he considered or was advised that such a remedy would be bound to fail since no such social security benefit was payable to widowers under United Kingdom law.
The applicant was not in receipt of child benefit at the time of his claim.
B. Relevant domestic law
The domestic law relevant to this application is set out in Runkee and White v. the United Kingdom, no. 42949/98, §§ 40-41, 25 July 2007.
COMPLAINT
The applicant complained that British social security legislation discriminated against him on grounds of sex, in breach of Article 14 of the Convention taken in conjunction with both Article 8 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.
THE LAW
The applicant’s claim in effect refers to the discriminatory treatment resulting from the payment to widows of the relevant benefits under the system in place before 9 April 2001. In the present case, in the absence of dependent children at the time of the claim and taking into consideration the partial decision of 12 November 2002, the relevant benefit in respect of the applicant is Widow’s Pension (“WP”).
The Court held in its lead judgment regarding Widow’s Pension (“WP”), that at its origin, and until its abolition in respect of women whose spouses died after 9 April 2001, WP was intended to correct “factual inequalities” between older widows, as a group, and the rest of the population and that this difference in treatment was reasonably and objectively justified. Moreover, the Court considered that the United Kingdom could not be criticised for not having abolished WP earlier and that it was not unreasonable of the legislature to decide to introduce the reform slowly (see Runkee and White v. the United Kingdom, no. 42949/98, §§ 40-41, 25 July 2007). The Court, consequently, considering it was not necessary to examine separately the complaint in respect of Article 8, did not find a violation of Article 14 taken in conjunction with Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 in respect of the non-payment to the applicants of Widow’s Pension or equivalent (ibid § 42).
Consequently, the complaint is manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 and 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court unanimously
Decides to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application.
Lawrence EarlyLech Garlicki
RegistrarPresident
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy