CLARK v. THE UNITED KINGDOM
Inadmissible
David Thór Björgvinsson;Giovanni Bonello;Lech Garlicki;Ledi Bianku;Mihai Poalelungi;Nicolas Bratza
The applicant, Mr Henry Clark, is a British national who was born in 1939 and lives in Kent. He was represented before the Court by Mr N. Price, a solicitor in Kent. The United Kingdom Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr C. Whomersley of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. The applicant’s wife died on 2 July 1993. His claim for widows’ benefits was made on 27 November 2000 and was rejected on 30 November 2000 on the ground that he was not entitled to widows’ benefits, namely Widow’s Payment (“Wpt”) and Widow’s Pension (“WP”), because he was not a woman. The applicant did not appeal as he considered or was advised that such a remedy would be bound to fail since no such social security benefits were payable to widowers under United Kingdom law. The domestic law relevant to this application is set out in Willis v. the United Kingdom, no. 36042/97, §§ 1426, ECHR 2002-IV and Runkee and White v. the United Kingdom, no. 42949/98, §§ 40-41, 25 July 2007.