AET v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: [2025] UKUT 016 (AAC)
Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision by Judge Stout on 14 January 2025
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Judicial Summary
The Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2023 (SI 2023/134) (the 2023 Order) remedied the incompatibility with the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) identified by the High Court (Holman J) in R (Jackson) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2020] EWHC 183 (Admin), [2020] 1 WLR 1441 by providing for cohabiting partners with dependent children to be entitled to Bereavement Support Payment (BSP) on the same basis as couples who are married or in a civil partnership. The 2023 Order had retrospective effect, introducing that new entitlement with effect from 30 August 2018. In this case, the Upper Tribunal decides that the new law only applies to claims made after the date of the coming into force of the 2023 Order on 9 February 2023. Claims made before that date still fall to be determined by reference to the previous rules.