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."
READ MORE: Millions of DWP benefit claimants could be eligible for £1,500 ahead of court case
The outcome of the appeal could lead to the four claimants - two of whom receive ESA while the others get Income Support and ESA respectively - being awarded more than £1,500 in backdated payments from DWP. This could then set a precedent for everyone who missed out on the uplift.
There is no confirmed guarantee that a ruling in the claimants’ favour would result in backdated payments for other people on legacy benefits who also didn't get the extra support. But, it could trigger an avalanche of similar legal challenges, reports the Daily Record.
The case was originally brought to the High Court last November., but it was dismissed in February this year. The court accepted that there was discrimination towards disabled people on legacy benefits - as a greater proportion receive legacy benefits compared with Universal Credit - but the judge ruled that the difference in treatment was justified.
The legal team representing the claimants then applied to appeal the ruling. William Ford KC at Osbornes Law, part of the legal team, confirmed in August that the Court of Appeal had granted permission to appeal - but no date for the hearing was given at the time.
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