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THE GOVERNMENT unlawfully discriminated against two severely disabled men who had been moved onto Universal Credit (UC), the High Court ruled yesterday.
In the first legal test of the roll out of UC, Mr Justice Lewis ruled that Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey had unlawfully discriminated against the men, who lived alone without a carer and saw their benefits cut by around £178 a month.
TP, a terminally ill 52-year-old, had his payments cut under UC while undergoing “gruelling chemotherapy” because he briefly moved from London to live with his parents in Dorset.
AR, a 36-year-old suffering from bipolar disorder, was forced to use foodbanks when his support was cut after the bedroom tax forced him to move from Middlesbrough to Hartlepool.
Their lawyer, Tessa Gregory from Leigh Day, said UC was “unlawfully discriminating against some of society’s most vulnerable” and criticised Ms McVey for appealing the judgment, urging her to “focus on fixing Universal Credit rather than wasting more public funds appealing this court decision.”
