PRESS RELEASE
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PRESS RELEASE |
‘Carson, Jackson and Others v the United Kingdom’
British Pensions in Australia (BPiA) and British Australian Pensioner Association (BAPA), both members of The International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP), have instructed their legal team to seek referral of the Carson, Jackson and Others v the United Kingdom case to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. This action follows the 4 November 2008 judgment of a Chamber of the Court which, in a 6-to-1 decision, rejected the Applicants’ challenge to the United Kingdom’s refusal to uprate in line with inflation the state pensions of over 50 per cent of UK pensioners resident abroad, of whom more than 245,000 live in Australia, 150,000 in Canada and over 35,000 in South Africa and NZ.
The Consortium members remain of the view that the Applicants' case raises very serious questions affecting the interpretation and application of the European Convention on Human Rights and the protection of the fundamental rights of 11.5 million pensioners, including the 526,000 resident overseas whose pensions are frozen and 11 million still resident in the UK who suffer severely reduced freedom of choice as to where to live in retirement without loss of income.
The ICBP Chairman, Tony Bockman, confirmed that all five of the Consortium’s partner organisations and the 13 applicants are deeply angered by the fact that the reasoning of the majority of the Chamber judges appears to have made the fundamental error of treating this as a social security case rather than as a pension case.
“It’s as though they set out to simply reiterate the May 2005 decision of the House of Lords, rather than fully examining this immoral discriminatory practice of the UK government,” says Bockman. “The dissenting judge, Chamber President Lech Garlicki, got it right when he said, ‘Considerations of social justice and equity require that persons who have duly contributed towards the pensions of others should not be treated differently in the subsequent calculation of their own pension. Differential treatment based solely on current residence has no link to the contributory nature of pensions and, therefore, is deprived of a reasonable justification.’
“The Chamber’s judgment has an extremely adverse effect on the most vulnerable in society,” continues Tony Bockman. “The livelihoods of more than half a million elderly are directly affected, impelling many into poverty after paying pension dues throughout their working lives. In addition, it also forces thousands still living in the UK into a life of loneliness, unable to join their children and grandchildren overseas due to the threat of a loss of income should they do so, thus denying them those wonderful experiences of sharing their later years with family, surely a right that none of us expected to have taken away from us.
“I have been absolutely bowled over by the number of our members around the world – literally hundreds so far – who have taken the time to contact me since November 4 in order to express their anger with the Chamber’s decision and to urge us to proceed with the application for a referral to the Grand Chamber. They can rest assured that we are indeed doing so.”
FURTHER INFORMATION can be obtained from either of the 2 Australian member organisations
Jim Tilley
Hon Chairman
British Pensions in Australia
Tel; 02 9521 7964, or 0417 244 269. Email:
jimtilley@bigpond.com.au
James Nelson
Vice President
British Australian Pensioner Association
Tel; 03 5664 3207 Email:
rainbowfarmau@yahoo.com.au