Non-motoring > Widowed parents allowance Miscellaneous
Thread Author: bathtub tom Replies: 8

 Widowed parents allowance - bathtub tom
Does today's supreme court decision mean any single mother can claim any deceased man was their partner and thus claim widow's allowance?
 Widowed parents allowance - Lygonos
Yawn
 Widowed parents allowance - Lygonos
Sure if they had evidence to corroborate they lived together as partners and the guy's name was on the birth certificate(s).

And the guy paid NI contributions apparently (it's a contributory allowance)
Last edited by: Lygonos on Thu 30 Aug 18 at 17:04
 Widowed parents allowance - R.P.
Quite rightly so.
 Widowed parents allowance - zippy
Quite agree. It's contribution based so the "premiums" have been paid.

We don't live in the same world as we did in the '70's or '80's and things like this need to be sorted.
 Widowed parents allowance - CGNorwich
It's not s funded scheme
If you broaden it's scope it will cost tax payers more. Not saying you shouldn't broaden the scope but there will be a cost as with all things
Nothing comes for free
 Widowed parents allowance - zippy
>> It's not s funded scheme
>> If you broaden it's scope it will cost tax payers more. Not saying you
>> shouldn't broaden the scope but there will be a cost as with all things
>> Nothing comes for free
>>
>>

That's the Govt's fault, not the claimants, surely?
 Widowed parents allowance - CGNorwich
Just a reminder that the broader the scope of a benefit the higher the cost to everyone
Nothing to do with "fault"
 Widowed parents allowance - Bromptonaut
The full judgment and a summary of it are linked here:

www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2017-0035.html

One Justice, Lord Hodge, dissented and would have dismissed the appeal.

The important point in relation to OP's (tic?) comment is that nothing in the decision changes the existing law. The Justices found that the law is incompatible with rights under the European Convention on Human Rights as imported into UK law by the Human Rights Act and possibly other international treaties.

The government should now bring forward legislation to remove the incompatibility. Given that such legislation might be (a) difficult to draft and (b) controversial with some members of the governing party and its DUP allies I'm not holding my breath.

The fact that parliamentary bandwidth is being hogged by brexit won't help.

I can't now find the source but I'm sure I read some comment that cost of implementing would be low tens of millions pa. Nugatory in terms of overall DWP spend. Furthermore longer life expectancy, movement of wives/Mothers into workforce and social change means the number of eligible claimants for the allowance have fallen dramatically over last 40 years.
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