​A 74-YEAR-OLD woman who has never received a penny in wages is being refused an old-age pension – because she is a nun.

Sister Mary Scott is forbidden from having any money or possessions of her own under the rules of the Benedictine Order.

It means she has never claimed a salary nor paid National Insurance.

But Sister Mary – who helps run the Oulton Abbey community, near Stone – is in ill health, desperate to retire and wants to claim a state pension to help keep her community afloat.

Now Sister Mary has taken her legal fight to the Court of Appeal and been given permission to have a full hearing of her case.

It is estimated that 5,000 nuns and 1,400 monks are affected by the ruling in Britain.

The Court of Appeal heard that Sister Mary and Sister Peter Smith helped manage a small nursing home and playgroup at the abbey, near Stone.

Any proceeds are ploughed into community funds and used to pay for the food and material to make new clothes.

But the Department of Work and Pensions has refused to grant Sister Mary means-tested pension credits because they are not paid to "members of religious orders who are fully maintained by their order".

Sister Mary appealed against the refusal and the Court of Appeal has now allowed her to mount her legal challenge.

Lawyers representing Sister Mary argue that her human rights are being violated.

They also argue that the Benedictine order has no centralised authority or hierarchy so it cannot ‘fully maintain’ Sister Mary.

Stephen Knafler QC, representing Sister Mary, told the Court of Appeal: "Sister Mary and other nuns and monks are in this position because they are bound by their rules to work for as long as they possibly can. Otherwise they could just go and live in a council house and forget about everything.”

Lord Justice Pill granted Sister Mary permission to appeal because it was arguable that "they were maintaining themselves from their own enterprise".

He said: “This will affect a considerable number of people.”

A date for the hearing has yet to be set.

The Grade II-listed Oulton Abbey has been home to a community of Benedictine nuns since 1853. They established a girls’ boarding school which was replaced by a retreat house and later a playgroup in 1968.

Our Lady and St Benedict's Nursing and Residential Home – which is also known as Oulton Abbey Care Home – opened in 1989 to replace the former school and retreat house.

Should nuns be able to get a pension?