High Court rules legacy benefits claimants will not receive £20 weekly uplift back payments

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A High Court judge has ruled that people receiving legacy benefits should not be given the same £20 weekly uplift that was paid to millions of Universal Credit claimants during the coronavirus pandemic between April 2020 and October 2021 to help with additional costs.

Benefit claimants on Universal Credit received a £20 weekly increase from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from April 2020 to October 2021 to help them pay for additional costs incurred during the coronavirus crisis and subsequent lockdowns.However, the uplift was not extended to those on older benefits such as Employment Support Allowance (ESA), Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) - which campaign groups say disproportionately affected disabled people.On November 17 and 19, 2021, evidence was submitted in writing as part of a judicial review on behalf of four recipients of legacy benefits who contend that the failure to provide them with the £20 weekly uplift which was given to claimants of Universal Credit constituted “unlawful discrimination.”On Friday, at the High Court in London, the judge accepted that there was discrimination but said the difference in treatment was justified.Birmingham Live reports that William Ford, partner at Osbornes Law, who represents all four of the individuals who brought the judicial review challenging the failure to extended the £20 uplift to those on legacy benefits, said: "We are extremely disappointed by today's judgement and will study it carefully to assess whether there are any grounds to appeal. "The court's decision is a devastating blow to more than two million people who we consider were unjustly deprived of the £20 uplift given to those who receive Universal Credit during the pandemic."It is