David Anthony Cooper v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | LORD JUSTICE LAWS |
| Judgment Date | 17 July 2006 |
| Neutral Citation | [2006] EWCA Civ 1176 |
| Docket Number | C3/2006/1141 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Date | 17 July 2006 |
[2006] EWCA Civ 1176
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISSIONERS
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London, WC2
Lord Justice Laws
C3/2006/1141
THE APPELLANT APPEARED IN PERSON.
THE RESPONDENT DID NOT APPEAR AND WAS NOT REPRESENTED.
1. This is an application for permission to appeal against the decision of the Social Security Commissioner, Mr Lloyd-Davies, made on 4 April 2006. By that decision the Commissioner refused the applicant leave to appeal against the Commissioner's own earlier decision of 20 December 2005. On that occasion the Commissioner held that, by force of a decision of the House of Lords in a case named Hooper, the applicant's case was unarguable in the English courts. So the substantive decision sought to be challenged today is that of 20 December 2005.
Mr Cooper, the applicant, has appeared before me today in person and addressed me with great clarity and courtesy. The decision of 20 December 2005 explains the nature of the case very clearly and I can do no better than replicate it in its entirety. Mr Cooper is very familiar with it.
"1. My decision is that the decision of the tribunal held on 25 May 2004 is not erroneous in law. Accordingly I do not allow the claimant's appeal.
2. The claimant was widowed on 15 March 1994. He was entitled to child benefit in respect of his daughter R. He made a claim for widowed mother's allowance in April 1994, which was disallowed as he was not a woman. He then made a claim for widowed parent's allowance, following the introduction of bereavement benefit on 9 April 2001, and was awarded widowed parent's allowance. His entitlement to child benefit in respect of R ceased on 8 September 2003. A decision maker decided that the claimant was not longer to widowed parent's allowance with effect from 9 September 2003 on the grounds that the claimant was no longer in receipt of child benefit. The claimant appealed. He accepted that his widowed parent's allowance had to stop, but maintained that he should have been entitled to either a bereavement allowance or widow's pension from 9 September 2003. The tribunal disallowed his appeal. The claimant appeals with the leave of a chairman. The appeal is not supported by the Secretary of State.
3. As regards the claimant's claim to bereavement allowance, it is clear that this claim must fail. His wife died 7 years before 9 April 2001 (the starting date for the allowance) and more than 52 weeks had expired since the death of the claimant's wife (52 weeks is the maximum period for entitlement to bereavement allowance) .
4. The claimant's principal argument is that a woman in similar circumstances to him, whose husband had died, would have been entitled to widowed mother's allowance from 1994 and on the termination of that allowance (when child benefit ceased to have been paid) , would have been titled to widow's...
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