DWP facing court over claimant’s universal credit ‘fit for work injustice’ | Disability News Service

Yet again the Department for Work and Pensions is facing court action for improperly assessing a benefit claimant, and for giving misleading advice after cutting off his payments.

Under the Conservative government, the DWP has become a multiple offender, with vulnerable people – particularly those with long-term illnesses and/or disabilities – bearing the brunt of its injustices.

Every time this government department is found to be at fault, the Tories say lessons have been learned, and this injustice will not happen again.

And then it happens again.

A disabled man who was unfairly found “fit for work”, and then saw his benefits slashed by almost £180 per month after he was forced onto the government’s new universal credit benefit system, is seeking justice in the high court.

It is the latest in a series of legal cases that have been taken on behalf of disabled benefit claimants against DWP, as a result of a series of welfare reforms introduced under successive Conservative and Conservative-led governments.

The man, known as IM for legal reasons, had been claiming employment and support allowance (ESA), but after undergoing a work capability assessment he was told in March last year that he was no longer eligible for ESA.

His jobcentre advised him to claim universal credit instead, which he did, but he also successfully appealed against the decision to find him fit for work.

Although the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) now accepts that he was unfairly found fit for work and that he has limited capability for work-related activity – the equivalent of being in the ESA support group – he has been treated as a new universal credit claimant.

As a new claimant, he is not entitled to the severe disability premium (SDP) he previously received as a top-up to ESA.

He is also not entitled to the partial compensation of £80 a month agreed by work and pensions secretary Esther McVey for those who lost entitlement to SDP when they were forced to move onto universal credit after their circumstances changed.

IM’s judicial review case has been taken by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), which has described DWP’s policy as “irrational” and discriminatory.

It has secured permission for a judicial review of the failure to provide IM with transitional protection after his move to universal credit, or, alternatively, the refusal to allow him to return to ESA.

CPAG is taking a similar legal action on behalf of AD, a single mother with a disabled child, which will be heard by the high court alongside IM’s case.

Source: DWP facing court over claimant’s universal credit ‘fit for work injustice’

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No Comments

  1. jg August 24, 2018 at 6:58 am - Reply

    it happens again and why, the clue is in after a assessment, no doubt carried out by the shining example of a 5 week clown who thinks there a qualified health care professional when the reality of life is that they probably would need re-training to de brainwash the trash that atos, capita and maximus under the guise of the dwp call medicals and let’s face it with some of the miracle cures they have found during these medicals is amazing, no arms, no legs can get up stairs, safe to cook even though the person had a lock installed on the cooker and had to be accompanied when going out they could make a journey unescorted, amazing, why don’t they tell the world about there miracle cures, could there be a lesson learnt in medical training, roll roll up roll up, come join the 5 week create a nurse dwp course and there diagnosis for anxiety, wow, they don’t rock back and forth in a chair therefore they don’t have anxiety, they don’t shake therefore they don’t have alcohol issues to then be later noted that the person has slight tremors, you could not make it up if you tried, what is even more frightening is one day that gravy train may end and then these people with there highly skilled talents could be let back into the real world, look at the scenario, walk a hundred yards, hearts okay, make a cup of coffee, plan a journey to the hospital even if they did get there by ambulance or taxi, nothing wrong with mobility, don’t even start with mental health, imagine them doing real assessments, would not need mh units, they walk to meet me and could get a cup of water and take medication nothing wrong, they can go out and be safe, how frightening, then again I suppose when it ends they could always work in private health care, highly paid and employ there skills treating tory mp’s and there like, now that does sound good!!!!

  2. Jeffrey davies August 24, 2018 at 6:59 am - Reply

    Aktion t4 was rolling along without much of a ado untill
    It’s wheels starting to wobble

  3. Terminator August 24, 2018 at 7:16 am - Reply

    When will the courts start hitting the DWP with compensation to the claimant of the high hundreds of thousands or one million or more for each claimant that wins? They won’t learn until compensation claims far outweight the benefits a claimant will get!

  4. Fred Palmer August 24, 2018 at 6:01 pm - Reply

    The same has happened to me in the last year here in Canada and is happening all throughout the Commonwealth every day to literally millions in any Crown held territory. Suicides are increasing yearly because of a lack of medical care and financial aid. No more excuses from government. They are breaking our contracts for service and committing serious human rights violations against disabled people who are supposed to be protected by Law. But how can a disabled person ever get well when he or she is continually fighting to receive those benefits? Impossible. Delays and denials through frivolous and vexatious appeals processes adds stress and torment to the sick disabled person, always causing a deterioration in their mental health as their physical and financial situation worsens. It is a death sentence carried out by pain, poverty, and stress. Those are the weapons that drive a person to suicide. Our governments fully guilty of discrimination and neglect of disabled people and 100% responsible for this intolerable crisis..

  5. trev August 24, 2018 at 7:27 pm - Reply

    Throw McVey in jail, along with IDS & Lord Freud, Cameron, Osborne & May too. 99 years apiece.

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