Legacy benefit claimants across the UK who missed out on the £20 weekly uplift paid to millions of people on Universal Credit during the coronavirus pandemic were able to watch a livestream of the appeal hearing from the Court of Appeal today, Wednesday December 7.
The challenge was streamed live on the Court of Appeal Civil Division’s official YouTube channel for Court 75 here. The appeal ended mid-afternoon with judgment now reserved, which means a ruling will be made at a later date either by email or writing, to the legal team representing the four claimants.
A summary of the proceedings on the Judiciary website states: “Facts: the appeal arises out of a judicial review of the Respondent’s failure as part of the Government’s pandemic response to increase the Personal Allowance of Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance (known as ‘legacy benefits’) in line with the increase made to the Standard Allowance for Universal Credit (UC).”
It continues: “It is the Appellants’ case that the difference in treatment between those in receipt of UC and those in receipt of legacy benefits is incompatible with Article 14 ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) as it was unjustified and disproportionate, particularly as disabled people were disproportionately affected by the difference in treatment.”
The right to appeal the ruling could now result in the four claimants involved in the case being awarded more than £1,500 in backdated payments from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - and set a precedent for everyone who missed out on the uplift.
While there is no guarantee a ruling in the claimants’ favour would result in backdated payments for every person across the UK also on legacy benefits who missed out on the extra support, it could trigger a wave of similar legal challenges.
Why was there an application to appeal?
People on Universal Credit received a £20 weekly increase from the DWP from April 2020 to October 2021 to help them pay for additional costs incurred during the global health crisis and subsequent lockdowns.
However, the uplift was not extended to more than two million people on older benefits such as Employment Support Allowance (ESA), Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) - which campaign groups said disproportionately affected disabled people.
Four claimants brought a challenge to the High Court in November 2021 in relation to the UK Government's failure to apply a similar increase to legacy benefits.
Two of the claimants are in receipt of ESA and the third and fourth claimants are in receipt of Income Support and JSA respectively.
The court accepted that there was a greater proportion of disabled persons in receipt of legacy benefits, compared to disabled people on Universal Credit, and that both groups of disabled claimants were in the same position.
But, while the court accepted that there was discrimination towards disabled people on legacy benefits, the judge ruled that the difference in treatment was justified.
The claimants are being represented by William Ford KC of Osbornes Law, Jamie Burton KC of Doughty Street Chambers and Desmond Rutledge of Garden Court Chambers.
To keep up to date with the outcome of this legal challenge, join our Money Saving Scotland Facebook page here, or subscribe to our newsletter which goes out four times each week - sign up here.
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