Unmarried mother to appeal benefits loss to Supreme Court in Belfast

An unmarried mother from Co Antrim who is fighting for access to a widowed parent's allowance is to have her case heard by the Supreme Court today.
Siobhan McLaughlin lost out on benefits she feels she should have gotSiobhan McLaughlin lost out on benefits she feels she should have got
Siobhan McLaughlin lost out on benefits she feels she should have got

Siobhan McLaughlin lived with her partner John Adams for 23 years and they had four children together, but the couple were never married.

After Mr Adams died in 2014 Ms McLaughlin challenged the rule that parents must have married to be entitled to a widowed parent’s allowance.

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The Armoy woman won the original case but it was overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Senior appeal judges did not accept the argument that she had been discriminated against on the grounds of her marital status.

Today the Supreme Court will sit in Northern Ireland for the first time ever and will hear her case.

Speaking to BBC News NI, Ms McLaughlin said that her partner was a widower when they met and that his wife had asked him to promise not to remarry after she died.

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“We didn’t see an issue, the commitment was the same,” she told the BBC.

“When we had children they took his surname and his name is on the birth certificates. It was a family unit.”

Ms McLaughlin said she felt “angry” when she found out she would not qualify for the bereavement benefits.

Ms McLaughlin is now the sole provider for her family and works two jobs as a special needs classroom assistant and cleaner.

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She said the money provided by the widowed parent’s allowance would have been useful to her family.

Ms McLaughlin said she and her late partner believed that cohabiting brought them the same rights as marriage.

“If it hadn’t been brought to my attention by Citizens Advice, there’s no way I would have been any the wiser to this.

“This is 2018. I get why people marry, but I don’t see if you don’t marry, why you should be crucified for it, why it should go against you.”

She added: “It’s shallow if that would be your reason to marry, to be entitled to a benefit that really you should be getting anyway.”