An appeal hearing over the £20 weekly uplift to Universal Credit during the Covid-19 pandemic is set to go to court next week. The legal dispute centres on the fact the extra money wasn't paid to people on legacy benefits, which campaign groups said disproportionately affected disabled people.
Millions of people received an extra £20 a week from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from April 2020 to October 2021 to help them out during the pandemic and lockdowns. But the uplift was not extended to more than two million people on older benefits like Employment Support Allowance (ESA), Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA).
It has now been confirmed that the team representing the four benefit claimants involved in the legal challenge will present their case to the Court of Appeal next week. One of the litigants posted on Twitter: "I can now confirm that I have had word from legal counsel today that the hearing in the appeal of the #LegacyBenefits case will be held on 7th December 2022."
