U.K. DWP unlawfully blocked support for disabled students for seven years, says court: Nov 20

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) unlawfully prevented thousands of disabled students from trying to claim the benefits they needed to pay for essential living costs for seven years, a court has found.

In the latest in a lengthy line of blunders by DWP, the high court concluded that DWP had misunderstood the relevant law.

It found that the department had unlawfully rejected disabled students’ claims for universal credit (UC) without allowing them to undertake a work capability assessment (WCA).

Disability Rights UK (DR UK), which has been campaigning against DWP’s unlawful policy since 2017, has previously said that 30,000 disabled students could have been affected.

The court has now found that two of those students – Sidra Kauser, who is studying for a masters in psychology at the University of York, and JL*, whose identity has been protected by the court – should not have had their claims refused.

Claimants are generally not allowed to receive UC if they are in education, but there was an exemption to this if they already received attendance allowance, disability living allowance or personal independence payment (PIP) and had limited capability for work (LCW).

Both claimants receive PIP, but they and other disabled students had their claims rejected because DWP would only allow disabled students already found to have LCW to qualify for the exemption and apply for UC.

DR UK has previously described how, thanks to DWP’s refusal to allow her to apply for UC, Kauser was left with just £122 a month to live on, including the costs of food, clothes, travel and her social life.

Thanks to the court’s decision, Kauser and JL will now be allowed to undergo a work capability assessment to decide their eligibility for universal credit.

The judge, Mr Justice Fordham, ruled on the judicial review last month and found the department had been behaving unlawfully, but his decision was only revealed this week.

Full article:

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.c...disabled-students-for-seven-years-says-court/