Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC) has expressed concern about some of the provisions of a bill aimed at implementing a landmark Supreme Court judgment on social-welfare payments.

The organisation was appearing at the Oireachtas Social Protection Committee to give its analysis of the general scheme of the Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner’s Pension) Bill 2024.

Earlier this year, the court ruled that John O’Meara, whose long-term partner died in 2021, was entitled to a widower’s contributory pension (WCP), having been initially refused by the Department of Social Protection.

O’Meara and Nichelle Batey had lived together and had three children but had never married or entered into a civil partnership.

Survivor’s pension

While FLAC welcomed the legislation, it voiced concern about what it described as “a levelling down” of the entitlements of other bereaved families.

Sinéad Lucey (FLAC’s managing solicitor) said that the bill would remove the current entitlement of people who were separated or divorced from a spouse or civil partner to a survivor’s pension if that spouse or civil partner died, provided that the surviving partner had not remarried and was not cohabiting with someone else.

“The general scheme would remove this entitlement,” said Lucey, adding that there was no clear rationale for the change.

“We do not see any objective justification for the introduction of legislation that distinguishes between the children of separated or divorced parents, and children whose parents were married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting,” she concluded.

At the hearing, FLAC also called for a ‘take-up’ campaign to ensure that families who would benefit from the bill were made aware of the new entitlements.