Just a general musing.

A client has asked whether the different disregards of income whether your under 60 or over 60 is discriminatory on grounds of age.

She is asking as she receives an adoption allowance that is partially disregarded for Housing Benefit before she is 60 and fully disregarded after she is 60.

What do you chaps who have more human rights experience think? Is it a governmental policy decision that is acceptable under the leeway allowed to national governments in Article 14?

Cheers

P

The whole of the pension credit sytem is vastly more generous than IS/IBJSA/IRESA and that is deliberate - look at the capital rules for pension credit and the higher appropriate amounts.

The Governemnt would say that this is all part of the drive to reduce pensioner poverty and has been ever since pension credit was introduced six years ago. You can't single out one little difference, it's the whole ethos of the benefit.