DWP back in court over legacy benefits during Covid – and staff are set to strike
Habitual cruelty: if you thought the Tories stopped persecuting people with long-term illnesses and disabilities during the Covid-19 crisis, think again.
The Department for Work and Pensions has had an easy time of it from the media over the past few years, partly because of the Covid-19 crisis.
And this is surprising because the DWP’s behaviour during that crisis has not covered it in glory.
As many thousands of working people suddenly found themselves claiming Universal Credit in order to make ends meet, they were granted a (temporary) £20-per-week uprating to keep them sweet and make them think UC is a fair benefit for people on low incomes.
People on so-called ‘legacy’ benefits like Employment and Support Allowance didn’t get the uprating.
Some of them grouped together to challenge the deliberate omission in the courts – which dismissed their case last year.
But they were back at the High Court on Wednesday (December 7, 2022) for an appeal. Here‘s The Canary:
If successful, the case could be worth up to £1,500 to every legacy benefit claimant. The court livestreamed the appeal, which you can watch by clicking through to YouTube here.
Claimants have been forced to take the DWP to court numerous times in recent years. Invariably, these cases have seen people fighting for their basic rights.
The Canary has witnessed first hand in recent years chronically ill and disabled people, and non-working social security claimants, having to fight the DWP – the government department charged with allegedly supporting their welfare. It’s perverse that they have to battle the department for their fundamental rights in the first place. However, this is indicative of a system where their treatment as second-class citizens is entrenched.
Meanwhile, members of the PCS Union who work at the DWP are striking from December 19-31 – because they want more pay. The irony is striking.
That being said, it would be wrong to suggest that working people should not be paid enough to make ends meet. If they don’t have that, they should be awarded it. That should go without saying but in a Tory-run UK we can’t count on it any more.
This Writer only wishes that those DWP employees would have the presence of mind to realise that it is hypocritical to complain about having too little to survive after having denied it to people with long-term illnesses and disabilities for so many years.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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The tory DWP have always been liars, callous, cruel and fraudulent in their treatment of those who need help….