No discrimination on grounds of age in a case concerning housing benefits

EUROPE: HOUSING BENEFITS

European Court of Human Rights, judgment, 26 October 2021, Šaltinyt? v. Lithuania (Application no. 32934/19).

«The case concerned the applicant’s allegation of discrimination on the grounds of age when she had applied for housing benefit. The courts had refused her application because she had not complied with the upper age limit of 35 under the relevant domestic law. She had been 37 at the time. The Court found that the Government had sufficiently justified setting an upper age limit for the housing benefit in question and the resulting difference in treatment complained of. In particular, the housing benefit had been aimed at assisting young people financially and encouraging them to have more children, in the face of a decreasing population caused by emigration and a low birth rate. It pointed out that the State had wide discretion to decide on benefits, taking into account social, demographic and economic factors.»

Direct link to the judgment (hudoc.echr.coe.int)
Accès direct au communiqué de presse (hudoc.echr.coe.int)
Direct link to the press release (hudoc.echr.coe.int)

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