An appeal over the £20 weekly uplift which was paid to Universal Credit claimants during the coronavirus pandemic, but not to around two million people on legacy benefits, has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
William Ford KC, the solicitor from Osbornes Law who represented the four claimants involved in the legal challenge, confirmed in a statement on the law firm’s website that the High Court had upheld the ruling made in the original hearing on February 18, 2022.
In the summary of the outcome, the Court of Appeal accepted that people on legacy benefits such as the claimants - two are in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the third and fourth are on Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) - had been treated less favourably as a group and it was also accepted that there was indirect discrimination on the grounds of disability.
