Government Faces Judicial Review over Universal Credit Rollout

A landmark legal challenge to Universal Credit by Law firm Leigh Day is underway. 

A judge has granted a High Court review of the Government’s universal credit rollout after claims the removal of certain benefits under the new system had left severely disabled people in significant financial difficulty. 

The review was granted after lawyers for a 52-year-old terminally ill man, who is suffering from non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and Castleman’s disease, said the new system had caused him to lose £178 a month after he was transferred on to the new all-in-one payments system. 

The man, identified only as TP, had been in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium and Enhanced Disability Premium, but the introduction of universal credit scrapped the existing policies, despite claims by former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, David Gauke, that “no one will experience a reduction in the benefit they are receiving at the point of migration to universal credit where circumstances remain the same.”

A judge granted the application and has ordered the action to be fast-tracked to a date between May and July of this year.

Law firm Leigh Day, arguing on TP’s behalf, said the new system undermines the Government’s outlined intentions that universal credit would focus additional support on the severely disabled. 

“We believe that by taking away these essential benefits from some of the most vulnerable people in society, the government has acted unlawfully,” said partner Tessa Gregory. 

“For my client who suffers from a terminal illness and is undergoing gruelling chemotherapy the additional benefits are quite literally a lifeline. At a time like this he should be focussing on his health not worrying about his benefits being axed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). We believe the safety net, which any one of us might need to rely on, is being unlawfully eroded by the way universal credit is being introduced.”