Hungarian Constitutional Court voids 30-day deadline for disability benefit claims

A lawsuit involving a 20-year-old with severe disabilities prompted Hungary’s Alkotmánybíróság to strike down the statutory provision that denied lifelong benefits to applicants who filed more than 30 days after their insurance ended. The court ruled the deadline created an unjust distinction between equally situated persons and breached constitutional equality. It ordered the removal of the 30-day clause and prohibited its application in any pending or future proceedings.

The decision was handed down before the newly appointed judges—Chronowski Nóra, Kovács András György, Ligeti Miklós, Szomora Zsolt and Orosz Árpád Gábor—took office. The judgment also referenced a separate, three-year-old case about environmental authority contracts, which was dismissed after a new law rendered the contested decree obsolete.