PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 28091/02) against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a British national, Mr Graham Thorne (“the applicant”), on 25 October 2001.

The applicant was represented 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, London

The applicant complained under Articles 8 and 14 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 that, because he was a man, he was denied social security benefits equivalent to those received by widows.

By a partial decision of 12 November 2002 the Court decided to communicate the complaints concerning widows’ benefits which had been made within the applicable time-limits. Subsequently, it was decided to examine the merits of the application at the same time as its admissibility.

THE FACTS

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE

The applicant was born in 1958 and lives in Kent.

His wife died on 25 January 2001. He made an oral claim for benefits on 16 February 2001. His formal claim for widows’ benefits, namely Widow’s Payment (“Wpt”) and Widowed Mother’s Allowance (“WMA”) was made subsequently, allegedly on 2 March 2001, and was rejected on 28 June 2001 on the ground that he was not entitled to widows’ benefits because he was not a woman. The applicant did not appeal as he considered or was advised that such a remedy would be bound to fail since no such social security benefits were payable to widowers under United Kingdom law.

The applicant was in receipt of child benefit at the time of his claim.

Upon the introduction of the new benefit scheme, as of 8 April 2001 the applicant started receiving Widowed Parent’s Allowance instead of WMA.