CASE OF FÁBIÁN v. HUNGARY
Remainder inadmissible;No violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Protection of property (Article 1 para. 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Deprivation of property;Peaceful enjoyment of possessions;Possessions);No violation of Article 14+P1-1 - Prohibition of discrimination (Article 14 - Discrimination) (Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Protection of property;Article 1 para. 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Peaceful enjoyment of possessions)
András Sajó;André Potocki;Angelika Nußberger;Branko Lubarda;Carlo Ranzoni;Guido Raimondi;Kristina Pardalos;Krzysztof Wojtyczek;Luis López Guerra;Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska;Nona Tsotsoria;Pauliine Koskelo;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque;Síofra O’Leary;Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström;Vincent A. De Gaetano;Yonko Grozev;Ksenija Turković
10. The applicant was born in 1953 and lives in Budapest. 11. He had been employed as a police officer when, having reached an age when he was entitled to do so, he took early retirement and started receiving a “service pension” (szolgálati nyugdíj) from 1 January 2000, when he was nearly 47 years old. The applicant, however, continued to work: he was employed in the private sector between 2000 and 2012 and from 1 July 2012 until 31 March 2015 he worked, as a civil servant, as the head of the Road Maintenance Department of the Budapest XIII District Municipality. The applicant paid the statutory contributions to the State old-age pension scheme from the first day of his employment (1 August 1973) until 31 March 2015. 12. On 28 November 2011 Parliament enacted Act no. CLXVII, which entered into force on 1 January 2012. According to section 5(1) of that law, service pensions like that of the applicant were converted into a “service allowance” (szolgálati járandóság), provided that the person concerned was born in or after 1955. Pursuant to section 3(2)(b) of the same Act, for recipients of a service pension who, like the applicant, were born in or before 1954, the service pension was to be converted into an old-age pension. 13. On 1 January 2013 an amendment to Act no. LXXXI of 1997 on Social-Security Pensions (hereafter “the 1997 Pensions Act”) entered into force, according to which the disbursement of those old-age pensions whose beneficiaries were simultaneously employed in certain categories within the civil service would be suspended from 1 July 2013 onwards for the duration of their employment (see also paragraphs 23-28 below). No such restriction was put in place in respect of those who were in receipt of an old-age pension while being employed within the private sector. 14. On 18 February 2013 the National Pensions Administration (Országos Nyugdíjbiztosítási Főigazgatóság) sent a letter to the applicant in his capacity as the recipient of an old-age pension, informing him of the amended legislation and instructing him to make a declaration as to whether he was employed in the civil service, in one of the categories concerned by the amendment of 1 January 2013. By a letter of 29 April 2013 the applicant notified the National Pensions Administration of his employment situation. Subsequently, on 2 July 2013, the National Pensions Administration informed the applicant that the disbursement of his pension had been suspended as of 1 July 2013. At that time his pension amounted to 162,260 Hungarian forints (HUF; at that time approximately 550 euros (EUR)) per month. 15. On 15 July 2013 the applicant lodged an administrative appeal with the National Pensions Administration (see paragraph 21 below) against the suspension of his pension payments in which he argued that his pension constituted an acquired right and that he was being discriminated against since pensioners working in the private sector continued to receive their pensions. 16. The National Pensions Administration sought further information from the applicant on 23 July 2013. The applicant elaborated on his appeal on 1 August 2013, referring, inter alia, to an application filed by the Ombudsman with the Constitutional Court in May 2013 (AJB-726/2013). In that application the Ombudsman set out the complaints which had been made to his Office about the amendment of the 1997 Pensions Act and raised the issue of a difference in treatment between pensioners employed in the civil service and those employed in the private sector. As far as the Court is aware, this case is currently still pending before the Constitutional Court. 17. On 27 September 2013 the National Pensions Administration discontinued the proceedings concerning the applicant’s appeal, holding that the applicant had failed to provide the information sought from him on 23 July 2013. 18. The applicant’s employment with the Budapest XIII District Municipality came to an end on 31 March 2015. On 24 April 2015 the competent authority decided that the disbursement of his pension would be resumed. His pension was increased to HUF 177,705 (at that time approximately EUR 585).