More than two million benefit claimants could get £1,040 in back pay if the government loses a legal battle over whether it was fair to exclude disabled people from extra Covid support.
At the start of the pandemic, Chancellor Rishi Sunak introduced a £20 a week uplift for more than six million Universal Credit claimants struggling due to Covid.
However, the boost, which was described as a lifeline, did not include those on so called ‘legacy benefits’, the majority of whom are disabled, sick or carers.
Two recipients of Employment Support Allowance (ESA) this week challenged this decision at the High Court for judicial review.
They said it was discriminatory and unjustified. On Thursday, the High Court agreed it is arguably unlawful and will decide the case later this year.
The claimants have asked for the trial to be heard before the end of July 2021.
Despite them having an equivalent entitlement to the ‘standard allowance’ of Universal Credit, simply because they were in a different part of the system, 1.9million people on ESA have been without this increase for the last 13 months.
Claimants of Income Support and Job Seekers Allowance have also been excluded.
Universal Credit is slowly replacing ‘legacy benefits’ but the process will not be complete until 2024 at the earliest – meaning the government is aware of the millions of people still on the previous welfare state.
Mps have also argued that the decision to exclude two groups of people who are in exactly the same situation is discriminating.
Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, said: “It’s simply not right for people to miss out on support just because they happen, through no fault of their own, to be claiming the ‘wrong’ kind of benefit.
William Ford, solicitor at Osbornes Law, which is representing the claimants, said: “We are pursuing this legal challenge based on the proposition that the pandemic means those dependent upon basic allowances are facing higher basic living costs, and yet despite their very similar circumstances, only some of them receive a Covid-specific uplift to help meet those costs.
“This unfairness calls for a properly evidenced justification, particularly as almost 2 million disabled people are disproportionately affected by this decision and the pandemic generally. Thus far the Government has failed to provide any objectively verifiable reason for the difference in treatment of people in essentially identical circumstances.”
A DWP Spokesperson told The Mirror: “It has always been the case that claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for Universal Credit if they believe that they will be better off.”
Helen Barnard of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said "everyone should have access to a strong social security system that protects them from harm when they are struggling to stay afloat."
She added: “Disabled people and carers already face a greater risk of poverty, so there can be no justification for offering them less support than people claiming Universal Credit simply because they are in a different part of the system.
“Discrimination has no place in our social security system and every day we fail to act undermines public trust and intensifies hardship. Ministers must right this injustice by urgently extending the £20 increase to legacy benefits.”
