Frozen UK Pensions Good News – The Case Moves To The 17-judge ECHR Grand Chamber

The Frozen UK Pensions Case concerns the inequity in state pension treatment for some UK pensioners. Whereas half of UK state pensioners living outside the UK have pensions that are exactly the same as those for UK residents, the other half (in Canada, Australia and South Africa and other Commonwealth countries) have pensions that are frozen at the rate that applied at the time they left the UK.  The case continues to progress to what everyone hopes will be an equitable conclusion despite the opposition of the UK government.

In November 2008, although the chairman of the 6-judge Lower Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights stated that he felt the arguments put forward were right, his five colleagues did not agree.  The Consortium believed that the lower chamber’s majority findings were legally flawed, in particular for treating the case as a non-contributory ‘social security’ matter rather than a contributory pension issue. Accordingly the Consortium decided to ask for a referral to the Grand Chamber. 

Tony Bockman, chairman of The International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP), has now informed members that a panel of five judges of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has accepted that the case should be referred to the 17-judge Grand Chamber. Since only ten per cent of applications for referral to the Grand Chamber are successful, this is deemed to be a favorable sign.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will hear the discrimination case on 2 September 2009.  The legal action is in the hands of London human rights lawyers Timothy Otty QC and Ben Olbourne of 20 Essex Street.  More details on the ECHR hearing can be found on the Pension Parity UK website. The website also provides a great deal of information documenting the facts on this most inequitable situation.

Other Previous Posts

• Frozen British Pensions Still On Their Way To The European Court Of Human Rights
• UK Frozen Pensions And The Moral Debt Of Honour
• Frozen UK Pensions – European Court of Human Rights – Decision