On widows’ pensions 

Pétition adressée à : Petitionsausschuss des Europäischen Parlaments

The petitioner alleges that the Spanish Government is denying women whose officially registered cohabiting partners have died the right to a widow’s pension on the grounds that their income was greater than their partner’s in the year of the latter’s death. Under current Spanish legislation (Article 221 of the Social Security Act, 40/2007), such partners must be economically dependent in order to be entitled to a widow’s pension. This, however, does not seem to be the case for partnerships registered as marriages. The petitioner maintains that this amounts to discrimination and is an attack on the protection afforded to families made up of unmarried couples and their children.