The Court of Appeal will finally hear the legacy benefits £20 uplift case tomorrow, Wednesday 7 December and the hearing will be livestreamed on YouTube.
Readers will remember that back in February of this year four claimants brought a claim against the DWP for failing to give them the same £20 uplift that was given to universal credit (UC) claimants during the pandemic.
The four legacy benefits claimants argued that the failure to give them the same uplift was discriminatory.
The High Court accepted that there were a greater proportion of disabled people on legacy benefits and that disabled claimants on legacy benefits were in the same position as disabled claimants on UC.
However, the judge held that the difference in treatment was justified because the DWP said it was done with the intention of providing additional support to people who had lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic and were forced to claim UC for the first time.
The judge accepted this in spite of the fact that all UC claimant, not just those who had recently lost their jobs, were given the uplift.
Fortunately, the claimants were able to continue the fight and the case will finally be considered by the Court of Appeal on Wednesday 7 December, although it will be some time after that before a decision is made.
The hearing will be livestreamed on YouTube.
A link has not yet been published, but it will be available on this page under the heading Re: T & ors (claimants/appellants) v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (defendant/respondent) when it goes live, with hearings usually starting at 10.30am
