NI: Supreme Court to hand down judgment on refusal of widowed parent’s benefits to unmarried Belfast mother
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The UK Supreme Court will hand down its judgment this week on Belfast woman Siobhan McLaughlin’s challenge to the rules governing the payment of a Widowed Parent’s Allowance.
The case was heard by Supreme Court justices in May during its historic first-ever sitting in Belfast.
The judgment will be handed down on Thursday morning and streamed live from the UKSC website.
Lawyers for Ms McLaughlin argued that section 39A(1) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Under the Act, Ms McLaughlin was refused a claim for Widowed Payment’s Allowance after the death of her partner in January 2014, with whom she had lived for 23 years, because she was neither married to nor a civil partner of him at the date of his death.
The appellant won her challenge at the High Court in Belfast, but it was subsequently overturned by the Court of Appeal.
Laura Banks, the solicitor at Belfast-based Francis Hanna & Co. who is bringing the case, was profiled in Irish Legal News earlier this year.
Ms Banks said: “The case came about because of a number of determined women; Denise Forde, Laura McMahon, myself, and most of all Siobhan McLaughlin.
“I found them all inspiring and encouraging and call them all friends, having been on this journey together – starting off with a conversation in CAB in Antrim and ending up in the highest court in the UK.”
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