I am dealing with a Client whose wife died aged 59 in 1998. She would have received a retirement pension of approximately £80 per week. My Client was under 65 at the time of his wife's death and has never claimed means tested benefits. He applied for a Widows Pension in November 2003 but was refused on 2 grounds. Firstly, that Widows Pension did not exist for men before April 9 2001 and secondly that the time limit for claiming benefit was before April 1997, 12 months from the date of death and after that date, 3 months after the death. He is therefore out of time. Am I correct in thinking that my Clients only possible recourse now is to the ECtHR in Strasbourg? Hooper appears to rule out the possibility of an extra-statutory payment. Any thoughts.

The House of Lords granted leave to appeal last month against the Court of Appeal's decision in Hooper. In addition, the ECHR still has yet to hear the similar widows pension cases of White and Runkee (which are being held up by the ECHR until the final outcome of the Hooper case).

Click on the following for the rightsnet news item on the Court of Appeals decision in Hooper:
Benefits for widowers: Court of Appeal decision

Go to the test case area of CPAG's website for a summary of the White and Runkee case: http://www.cpag.org.uk/cro/test.htm#white

Unfortunately however, regardless of the final outcome of the above cases, I don't think your client can successfully pursue any case, as he did not originally meet the time limit for making his widows pension claim.