R (Carson) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and R (Carson & Reynolds) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions were a series of civil action court cases seeking judicial review of the British government's policies under the Human Rights Act 1998. They related to the right to property under Article 1 of the First Protocol and prohibition of discrimination under Article 14 of the convention. In Reynolds's case, there was also Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the right to respect for "private and family life" to be considered, as well as Article 3 of the ECHR, the prohibition of torture, and "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". Background Annette Carson was a UK pensioner who had relocated to work in South Africa in 1989. In April 2002, she brought this case under the Human Rights Act 1998. Carson contended that the failure of the UK government to pay to pensioners resident in certain countries abroad the inflation uprating of their UK State pensions, while paying the annual uprating in other countries, contravened the UK Human Rights Act of 1998 (based on the European Convention on Human Rights) on grounds of discrimination. Annual uprating to the UK State Pension is payable in countries like the UK, the European Economic Area and a number of disparate countries (the United States, for example), whilst not being payable in predominantly Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Joanne Reynolds was under 25 and living in a council flat in England. She was receiving the Jobseeker's Allowance and Income Support. She received less than she would have received if she had been over 25. This allegedly breached: Article 1 of the First Protocol of the ECHR; Article 14, taken in conjunction with Article 1 of the First Protocol of the ECHR; Article 8 of the ECHR; Article 3 of ECHR. The two claimants – Carson and Reynolds – had separate administrative court hearings in 2002, but their appeal hearing in 2003 to the Supreme Court of Judicature Court of Appeal (Civil Division) and to the House of Lords in 2005 were consolidated since the UK courts decided that the points of law raised in the administrative courts were similar. The Carson case was pursued as a class action in the ECHR in 2008, where she was joined by twelve other applicants who,