Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Social policy ° Equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security ° Directive 79/7 ° Permitted derogation in view of possible consequences for other benefits of different pensionable ages ° Scope ° Limited to forms of discrimination which are necessarily and objectively linked to the difference in pensionable age ° Discrimination in relation to invalidity benefits

(Council Directive 79/7, Art. 7(1)(a))

Summary

Article 7(1)(a) of Directive 79/7 on the progressive implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security must be interpreted as permitting not only the setting of different ages for men and women for the purposes of granting old-age and retirement pensions but also forms of discrimination existing under other benefit schemes which are necessarily and objectively linked to the difference in pensionable age. Consequently, where, pursuant to that provision, a Member State has set the pensionable age for women at 60 and that for men at 65, it is permitted, first, to provide that the rate of invalidity pension payable to persons becoming incapacitated for work before they reach pensionable age is to be limited to the actual rate of retirement pension from the age of 60 in the case of women and from the age of 65 in the case of men and, second, to reserve entitlement to invalidity allowance, paid in addition to invalidity pension, to those persons who are aged under 55, in the case of women, and under 60, in the case of men, at the time when they first become incapacitated for work. Such forms of discrimination are necessarily and objectively linked to the difference in pensionable age, and to prohibit them would undermine the coherence between the retirement pension scheme and the invalidity benefit scheme.