Tag: Benefits

Gomez-Limon v Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social (INSS): ECJ 16 Jul 2009

ECJ Social Policy – Directive 96/34/EC – Framework agreement on parental leave – Entitlements acquired or being acquired at the start of the leave – Continued receipt of social security benefits during the leave – Directive 79/7/EEC – Principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security Acquisition of entitlements to permanent invalidity pension acquired during parental leave)#

Citations:

[2009] EUECJ C-537/07, ECLI:EU:C:2009:462

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Directive 79/7/EEC

Jurisdiction:

European

Citing:

Opinion – Gomez-Limon v Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social (INSS) ECJ 4-Dec-2008
ECJ Opinion – Principle of equality of treatment of men and women in matters of social security. Calculation of the amount of an invalidity pension – Parental leave. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Discrimination, Employment, Benefits

Updated: 26 March 2022; Ref: scu.583980

Westminster City Council v National Asylum Support Service: HL 17 Oct 2002

The applicant sought assistance from the local authority. He suffered from spinal myeloma, was destitute and an asylum seeker.
Held: Although the Act had withdrawn the obligation to provide assistance for many asylum seekers, those who were infirm and whose infirmity was not a consequence of their destitution, had not been excluded. Only able bodied destitute asylum seekers were excluded from benefit, and they had to rely upon the respondent. The House considered the value of the Explanatory notes now published with Acts: ‘Insofar as the Explanatory Notes cast light on the objective setting or contextual scene of the statute, and the mischief at which it is aimed, such materials are therefore always admissible aids to construction. They may be admitted for what logical value they have.’ Lord Steyn: ‘The starting point is that language in all legal texts conveys meaning according to the circumstances in which it was used. It follows that the context must always be identified and considered before the process of construction or during it. It is therefore wrong to say that the court may only resort to evidence of the contextual scene when an ambiguity has arisen.’

Judges:

Steyn, Slynn, Hoffmann, Millett and Rodger LL

Citations:

Times 18-Oct-2002, [2002] UKHL 38, [2002] 1 WLR 2956, [2002] 4 All ER 654, [2002] HLR 58, (2002) 5 CCL Rep 511, [2003] BLGR 23

Links:

House of Lords, Bailii

Statutes:

National Assistance Act 1948 21, Immigration and Asylum Appeals Act 1999 95 116

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Prenn v Simmonds HL 1971
Backgroun Used to Construe Commercial Contract
Commercial contracts are to be construed in the light of all the background information which could reasonably have been expected to have been available to the parties in order to ascertain what would objectively have been understood to be their . .
Cited – Reardon Smith Line Ltd v Yngvar Hansen-Tangen (The ‘Diana Prosperity’) HL 1976
In construing a contract, three principles can be found. The contextual scene is always relevant. Secondly, what is admissible as a matter of the rules of evidence under this heading is what is arguably relevant, but admissibility is not decisive. . .
Cited – Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society HL 19-Jun-1997
Account taken of circumstances wihout ambiguity
The respondent gave advice on home income plans. The individual claimants had assigned their initial claims to the scheme, but later sought also to have their mortgages in favour of the respondent set aside.
Held: Investors having once . .
Cited – River Wear Commissioners v Adamson HL 1877
It was not necessary for there to be an ambiguity in a statutory provision for a court to be allowed to look at the surrounding circumstances.
As to the Golden Rule of interpretation: ‘It is to be borne in mind that the office of the judge is . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Environment Transport and the Regions and another, ex parte Spath Holme Limited HL 7-Dec-2000
The section in the 1985 Act created a power to prevent rent increases for tenancies of dwelling-houses for purposes including the alleviation of perceived hardship. Accordingly the Secretary of State could issue regulations whose effect was to limit . .
Cited – Robinson v Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Others HL 25-Jul-2002
The Northern Ireland Parliament had elected its first minister and deputy more than six weeks after the election, but the Act required the election to be within that time. It was argued that as a creature of statute, the Parliament could not act . .
Cited – Regina v Westminster City Council ex parte A, London Borough of Lambeth ex parte X and similar CA 17-Feb-1997
This was an appeal from orders of certiorari quashing the decisions of three local authorities refusing to provide accommodation for the respondents, four asylum seekers, whose applications for asylum were presently being considered by the Secretary . .
Cited – Regina v Wandsworth London Borough Council, Ex Parte O; Leicester City Council, Ex Parte Bhikha CA 7-Sep-2000
The applicants were immigrants awaiting determination of their applications for exceptional leave to remain, and who came to suffer from serious illness. Each applied for and was refused assistance from their local authority.
Held: The . .
Cited – Wahid v London Borough of Tower Hamlets CA 7-Mar-2002
Gilliatt The appellant suffered from schizophrenia. He was refused permission to apply for judicial review and for orders requiring the local authority not just to provide suitable accommodation but better . .
Appeal from – Westminster City Council v National Asylum Support Service CA 10-Apr-2001
. .
At first instance – Westminster City Council v National Asylum Support Service Admn 27-Feb-2001
. .

Cited by:

Cited – Regina (on the Application of Mani) v London Borough of Lambeth CA 9-Jul-2003
Where a destitute and disabled asylum seeker had a clear need for care and attention, the local authority had a duty to provide it. The claimant was an asylum seeker, with impaired mobility and a history of mental halth difficulties. At first he was . .
Cited – Regina (on the Application of A) v National Asylum Support Service, London Borough of Waltham Forest CA 23-Oct-2003
A family of asylum seekers with two disabled children would be destitute without ‘adequate’ accommodation. What was such accommodation?
Held: The authority was under an absolute duty to house such a family. In satisfying such duty, it was . .
Cited – Regina, ex parte O v The London Borough of Haringey, The Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 4-May-2004
The court considered the duties of local authorities to support infirm asylum seekers with children.
Held: The authority had an obligation to support the adult, but the responsibility for the children fell on the National Asylum Support . .
Applied – S, Regina (on Application of) v South Yorkshire Police; Regina v Chief Constable of Yorkshire Police ex parte Marper HL 22-Jul-2004
Police Retention of Suspects DNA and Fingerprints
The claimants complained that their fingerprints and DNA records taken on arrest had been retained after discharge before trial, saying the retention of the samples infringed their right to private life.
Held: The parts of DNA used for testing . .
Cited – Attorney General’s Reference (No 5 of 2002) HL 14-Oct-2004
The Attorney General sought the correct interpretation of section 17 where a court was asked as to whether evidence obtained from a telephone tapping had been taken from a public or private network. A chief constable suspected that the defendants, . .
Cited – Regina v Montila and Others HL 25-Nov-2004
The defendants faced charges under the two Acts. They raised as a preliminary issue whether it is necessary for the Crown to prove that the property being converted was in fact the proceeds, in the case of the 1994 Act, of drug trafficking and, in . .
Cited – In re P (a minor by his mother and litigation friend); P v National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers HL 27-Feb-2003
The pupil had been excluded from school but then ordered to be re-instated. The teachers, through their union, refused to teach him claiming that he was disruptive. The claimant appealed a refusal of an injunction. The injunction had been refused on . .
Cited – Phillips v Rafiq and Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) CA 13-Feb-2007
The MIB appealed from a judgment making it liable for an award of damages to the estate of the deceased who had been a passenger in a vehicle which he knew to be being driven without insurance. The estate had not sued the MIB directly, but first . .
Cited – King v The Serious Fraud Office CACD 18-Mar-2008
Restraint and Disclosure orders had been made on without notice applications at the request of South Africa. The applicant appealed a refusal of their discharge.
Held: Such orders did not apply to the applicant’s assets in Scotland. The orders . .
Cited – M, Regina (on the Application of) v Slough Borough Council HL 30-Jul-2008
The House was asked ‘whether a local social services authority is obliged, under section 21(1)(a) of the 1948 Act, to arrange (and pay for) residential accommodation for a person subject to immigration control who is HIV positive but whose only . .
Cited – Persimmon Homes (South Coast) Ltd v Hall Aggregates (South Coast) Ltd and Another TCC 10-Oct-2008
The parties had agreed for the sale of land under an option agreement. The builder purchasers now sought to exercise rights to adjust the price downwards.
Held: The provisions had been intended and had achieved a prompt and binding settlement . .
Cited – Mucelli v Government of Albania (Criminal Appeal From Her Majesty’s High Court of Justice) HL 21-Jan-2009
The House was asked whether someone who wished to appeal against an extradition order had an obligation also to serve his appellant’s notice on the respondent within the seven days limit, and whether the period was capable of extension by the court. . .
Cited – Rollins, Regina v SC 28-Jul-2010
The court was asked whether the Financial Services Authority had a power to prosecute money laundering offences under the 2002 Act, or whether, as contended by the defendant, its powers were limited to sections under the 2000 Act.
Held: The . .
Cited – Oceanbulk Shipping and Trading Sa v TMT Asia Ltd and Others SC 27-Oct-2010
The court was asked whether facts which (a) are communicated between the parties in the course of without prejudice negotiations and (b) would, but for the without prejudice rule, be admissible as part of the factual matrix or surrounding . .
Cited – Horton v Henry CA 7-Oct-2016
No obligation on bankrupt to draw on pension fund
The trustee in bankruptcy appealed against a decision dismissing his application for an income payments order pursuant to section 310 of the 1986 Act in respect of income which might become payable to the respondent from his personal pension . .
Cited – Hutchings, Re Application for Judicial Review SC 6-Jun-2019
The appellant, a former army officer challenged proceedings against him as to the death of a civilian shot in Northern Ireland in 1974. His trial had been certified for trial by judge alone, and without a jury under section 1 of the 2007 Act.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Local Government, Health, Immigration, Benefits, Human Rights

Leading Case

Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.177452

DA and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: Admn 22 Jun 2017

The claim relates to the revised Benefit Cap which (among other exemptions) requires the parent in order to avoid the imposition of the cap to work at least 16 hours per week. The Benefit Cap was originally imposed by Sections 96 and 97 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012. These have been amended by the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. The material effect of the amendment was to reduce the annual limit for the receipt of welfare benefits from pounds 26,000 per annum to pounds 20,000 for those living outside of and pounds 23,000 for those living within Greater London. The reductions were brought into effect by Regulations on 7 November 2016. The cap affects all benefit claimants, but there are different rates for couples, whether or not they have children, and lone parents with children.

Judges:

Collins J

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 1446 (Admin), [2017] WLR(D) 409, [2017] PTSR 1266

Links:

Bailii, WLRD

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

At First Instance – DA and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 15-May-2019
Several lone parents challenged the benefits cap, saying that it was discriminatory.
Held: (Hale, Kerr LL dissenting) The parents’ appeals failed. The legislation had a clear impact on lone parents and their children. The intention was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Benefits

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.588874

Petrovic v Austria: ECHR 27 Mar 1998

The applicant was refused a grant of parental leave allowance in 1989. At that time parental leave allowance was available only to mothers. The applicant complained that this violated article 14 taken together with article 8.
Held: The application was dismissed. the court noted that, as society moved towards a more equal sharing of responsibilities for the upbringing of children, contracting states have extended allowances such as parental leave to fathers. Austrian law had evolved in this way, eligibility for parental leave allowance being extended to fathers in 1990. The Austrian legislature was not to be criticised for having introduced progressive legislation in a gradual manner. For article 14 to be applicable, the facts at issue must ‘fall within the ambit’ of one or more of the Convention rights. ‘The Court has said on many occasions that Article 14 comes into play whenever the subject matter of the disadvantage ‘constitutes one of the modalities’ of the exercise of a right guaranteed or whenever the measures complained of are ‘linked’ to the exercise of a right guaranteed.’ Article 14 does not enshrine a freestanding right to freedom from discrimination.

Citations:

20458/92, [2001] 33 EHRR 14, (2001) 33 EHRR 307, [1998] ECHR 21, (1998) 33 EHHR 307, [1998] ECHR 21

Links:

Worldlii, Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights 14

Jurisdiction:

Human Rights

Citing:

Cited – Karlheinz Schmidt v Germany ECHR 18-Jul-1994
Article 14 of the Convention operates not by way of the conferral of a freestanding right not to be discriminated against, but rather by way of complementing the other substantive provisions of the Convention and the Protocols. It has no independent . .
Cited – Van Raalte v The Netherlands ECHR 21-Feb-1997
A was an unmarried childless man over 45 complaining of a law which exempted unmarried childless women over 45 from paying contributions under the General Child Benefits Act. Apart from the exempted women, the entire adult population was subject to . .

Cited by:

Cited – Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza CA 5-Nov-2002
The applicant sought to succeed to the tenancy of his deceased homosexual partner as his partner rather than as a member of his family.
Held: A court is bound by any decision within the normal hierachy of domestic authority as to the meaning . .
Cited – Carson and Reynolds v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions CA 17-Jun-2003
The claimant Reynolds challenged the differential treatment by age of jobseeker’s allowance. Carson complained that as a foreign resident pensioner, her benefits had not been uprated. The questions in each case were whether the benefit affected a . .
Cited – Douglas v North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council CA 19-Dec-2003
The applicant had sought a student loan to support his studies as a mature student. It was refused because he would be over 55 at the date of the commencement of the course. He claimed this was discriminatory.
Held: The Convention required the . .
Cited – Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza HL 21-Jun-2004
Same Sex Partner Entitled to tenancy Succession
The protected tenant had died. His same-sex partner sought a statutory inheritance of the tenancy.
Held: His appeal succeeded. The Fitzpatrick case referred to the position before the 1998 Act: ‘Discriminatory law undermines the rule of law . .
Cited – Morris, Regina (on the Application of) v Westminster City Council and Another Admn 7-Oct-2004
The applicant questioned the compatibility of s185 of the 1996 Act with Human Rights law. The family sought emergency housing. The child of the family, found to be in priority housing need, was subject also to immigration control. Though the matter . .
Cited – Gita Ram v Baskinder Ram,Solinder Ram, Monder Ram and Maurice William Russell CA 5-Nov-2004
A bankrupt had, before his bankruptcy disposed of his share in a house at an undervalue. His wife appealed an order that the share disposed of should vest entirely in the trustee in bankruptcy. Matrimonial proceedings had also been commenced.
Cited – Secretary of State for the Home Department v Hindawi and Headley CA 13-Oct-2004
The applicant was a foreign national serving a long-term prison sentence. He complained that UK nationals would have had their case referred to the parole board before his.
Held: The right to be referred to the parole board was a statutory . .
Cited – Francis v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions CA 10-Nov-2005
The applicant had sought payment of a ‘Sure Start’ maternity grant. She had obtained a residence order in respect of her sister’s baby daughter who had been taken into care. She said that a payment would have been made to the partner of a mother or . .
Cited – Sidabras and Dziautas v Lithuania ECHR 27-Jul-2004
Former KGB officers had been banned from employment in a range of public and private sector jobs, including as lawyers, notaries, bank employees and in the teaching profession. They complained of infringement of Article 8 taken alone and also in . .
Cited – Wilkinson v Kitzinger and others FD 31-Jul-2006
The parties had gone through a ceremony of marriage in Columbia, being both women. After the relationship failed, the claimant sought a declaration that the witholding of the recognition of same-sex marriages recoginised in a foreign jurisdiction . .
Cited – Animal Defenders International, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport HL 12-Mar-2008
The applicant, a non-profit company who campaigned against animal cruelty, sought a declaration of incompatibility for section 321(2) of the 2003 Act, which prevented adverts with political purposes, as an unjustified restraint on the right of . .
Cited – Steinfeld and Another v Secretary of State for Education CA 21-Feb-2017
Hetero Partnerships – wait and see proportionate
The claimants, a heterosexual couple complained that their inability to have a civil partnership was an unlawful discrimination against them and a denial of their Article 8 rights. The argument that the appellants’ case did not come within the ambit . .
Cited – Steinfeld and Keidan, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for International Development (In Substitution for The Home Secretary and The Education Secretary) SC 27-Jun-2018
The applicants, an heterosexual couple wished to enter into a civil partnership under the 2004 Act, rather than a marriage. They complained that had they been a same sex couple they would have had that choice under the 2013 Act.
Held: The . .
Cited – DA and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 15-May-2019
Several lone parents challenged the benefits cap, saying that it was discriminatory.
Held: (Hale, Kerr LL dissenting) The parents’ appeals failed. The legislation had a clear impact on lone parents and their children. The intention was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Benefits, Discrimination

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.165610

Rijksdienst voor Pensioenen v Brouwe: ECJ 29 Jul 2010

Europa (Free Movement Of Persons) Equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security – Directive 79/7/EEC – Frontier workers – Calculation of pensions.

Citations:

C-577/08, [2010] EUECJ C-577/08

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Directive 79/7/EEC

Jurisdiction:

European

Discrimination, Benefits

Updated: 06 February 2022; Ref: scu.421303

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Tolley: ECJ 1 Feb 2017

ECJ (Judgment) Reference for a preliminary ruling – Social security – Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 – Care component of disability living allowance – Person insured against the risk of old age who has definitively ceased all occupational activity – Concepts of ‘sickness benefit and ‘invalidity benefit’ – Exportability

Judges:

R. Silva de Lapuerta, P

Citations:

ECLI:EU:C:2017:74, [2017] EUECJ C-430/15

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71

Jurisdiction:

European

Benefits

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.573831

Zaniewicz-Dybeck v Pensionsmyndigheten: ECJ 7 Dec 2017

Social Security : Judgment – Reference for a preliminary ruling – Social security for migrant workers – Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 – Article 46(2) – Article 47(1)(d) – Article 50 – Guaranteed pension – Minimum benefit – Calculation of pension entitlement

ECLI:EU:C:2017:946, [2017] EUECJ C-189/16
Bailii
European

Benefits

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.601089

Raad van bestuur van de Sociale verzekeringsbank v Wieland and Rothwangl: ECJ 27 Oct 2016

ECJ (Judgment) Reference for a preliminary ruling – Articles 18 and 45 TFEU – Social security for migrant workers – Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 – Articles 3 and 94 – Regulation (EC) No 859/2003 – Article 2(1) and (2) – Old-age and survivor’s insurance – Former seafarers who are nationals of a third country which became a Member State of the European Union in 1995 – Excluded from entitlement to old-age benefit)

ECLI:EU:C:2016:820, [2016] EUECJ C-465/14
Bailii
Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71, Regulation (EC) No 859/2003
European

Benefits, Discrimination

Updated: 25 January 2022; Ref: scu.571262

Rijksdienst voor Pensioenen v Hoogstad: ECJ 26 Oct 2016

ECJ Judgment – Reference for a preliminary ruling – Social security – Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 – Article 4 – Material scope – Deductions from statutory old-age pensions and all other supplementary benefits – Article 13 – Determination of the applicable legislation – Residence in another Member State

C-269/15, [2016] EUECJ C-269/15
Bailii
Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 4 813
European

Benefits

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.570586

Ghulam and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department and Another: Admn 24 Oct 2016

Three conjoined claims for judicial review challenging decisions by the Secretary of State setting the level of weekly support payments to asylum seekers pursuant to sections 95 to 98 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

Flaux J
[2016] EWHC 2639 (Admin)
Bailii
England and Wales

Benefits, Immigration

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.570547