PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 63679/00) 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 Mr Waldemar Szulc (“the applicant”) on 22 October 2000.

The applicant was unrepresented before the Court. The United Kingdom Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr C. Whomersley of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London.

By a decision of 12 November 2002 the Court decided to communicate the complaint concerning Widowed Mother’s Allowance and Widow’s Bereavement Allowance and declared inadmissible the remainder of the application. Subsequently, under the provisions of Article 29 § 3 of the Convention, the President of the Chamber, to which the case had been allocated, 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 1955 and lives in Leicester.

His wife died on 16 February 1996, leaving two children of ten and twelve years of age respectively. His claim for widows’ benefits was made on 9 February 1997 and was rejected on 18 February 1997 on the ground that he was not entitled to widows’ benefits because he was not a woman. The applicant appealed and his claims were consistently rejected up to the most recent decision dated 23 October 2000.

On an unspecified date the applicant made a claim to the Inland Revenue, requesting an allowance equivalent to that received by a widow, namely Widow’s Bereavement Allowance (“WBA”). After various rejections, on 20 September 2000 the Inland Revenue confirmed that he was ineligible for WBA as he was not a woman.

The applicant did not appeal further as he considered or was advised that such a remedy would be bound to fail since no such social security or tax benefits were payable to widowers under United Kingdom law.