Attorney general could feature in woman’s legal challenge

The High Court was due to hear Marina Lennon’s claim that the benefit she received following the death of her first husband had been unlawfully halted.

But the case was adjourned because it involves an issue within the control of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Lawyers will now serve a devolution notice on Attorney General John Larkin QC, who may decide to become involved in proceedings.

Expressing concern that any lengthy delay could have an emotional and personal impact, Mr Justice McCloskey re-listed the case for later this month.

Mrs Lennon is seeking to judicially review the Department for Communities over the decision to stop her allowance, claiming that it creates a deterrent to forming a new relationship.

Her challenge raises different legal points to the landmark case taken by unmarried Co Antrim mother-of-four Siobhan McLaughlin.

Last year the Supreme Court ruled the decision to deny Ms McLaughlin a widowed parent’s allowance when her partner died breached the family’s human rights.

But Mrs Lennon, the mother of a teenage daughter, had been granted the benefit after her first husband, Barry McKeown, passed away in October 2012.

It was only when she started cohabiting with another man - who she went on to marry - that the payments were stopped, according to her legal team.

They contend that the Department’s decision unlawfully breaches her private and family life entitlements under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Outside court, solicitor Ciaran O’Hare, of McIvor Farrell law firm, claimed Mrs Lennon and her husband have been left financially worse-off from co-habitating and marrying, compared to when they were living apart.

“Crucially, in these types of scenarios the children are worst affected by the decision to stop payments of Widowed Parent’s Allowance,” he said.

“My client states that it is hard enough for a child to get over the grief of losing a loved one and no further hardship should then be caused to them by a financial entitlement being removed.”