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03/02/2025

Court of Appeal to consider cases of two bereaved mothers brought by Law Centre NI

Law Centre NI are today representing clients before the Court of Appeal in two important test cases. We are representing two mothers who are sadly bereaved following the death of their partner and father of their children.

However, because our clients were unmarried to their deceased partner, they have been unable to access the much-needed financial support that would otherwise be available through bereavement benefits, namely through the Widowed Parent’s Allowance and Bereavement Support Payment. The Law Centre is assisting these women to challenge this injustice.

Background

Because our clients were unmarried to their deceased partners, their claims to the respective bereavement benefits were refused in 2016 and 2017. They appealed against these decisions, but their cases awaited the outcome of a similar case which was progressing through the courts taken by Siobhan McLaughlin. The McLaughlin case culminated in a decision before the Supreme Court on 30 August 2018 which decided that the legislation that prevented access to bereavement benefits for the surviving cohabiting parent was incompatible and breached claimant’s Human Rights.

As a result, Parliament was required to amend the offending legislation and eventually passed the Bereavement Benefits Remedial Order on 9th February 2023. This provided retrospective access to bereavement benefits for co-habiting parents that had not been married when their partner died. Parliament however limited the retrospective effect to the date of the Supreme Court judgment, 30 August 2018.

Our clients still had outstanding appeals of the 2016 and 2017 decisions which were awaiting consideration by Tribunal. This has now been referred to the Court of Appeal. The Department accepts that the legislation preventing the appellant’s entitlement to bereavement benefits for the period prior to 30 August 2018 is incompatible with human rights legislation (Article 14 read with Article 8 ECHR) on the basis that the Appellant and her partner were cohabiting partners rather than spouses or civil partners. The issue here is the lack of remedy.

Injustice after tragedy

The Court of Appeal will now consider if a remedy should be available to the appellants with outstanding appeals in circumstances where it is accepted that the legislation preventing their entitlement to benefit was in breach of their human rights.

Owen McCloskey, Head of Social Security at Law Centre NI, said:

The bereaved mothers we represent have suffered tragedy, followed by injustice, when they were denied access to the respective Bereavement Benefits at a time when they needed them most. It has been established that the legislation that prevented their access, discriminated against unmarried parents and was in breach of their human right to a family life. The Remedial Order passed by Parliament does not remedy the loss suffered by the appellants we represent, and we have taken this test case to seek clarification for our clients and others in their circumstances.