Inclusion London supports a legal challenge about recent changes to Personal Independence Payment Regulations

A Disabled person with support from Inclusion London and other Disability charities is bringing a challenge to the unfair and discriminatory way those with psychological distress are treated by the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) rules.

Regulations that came into force in March 2017 mean that people with serious mental health conditions, who are unable to plan or undertake a journey because of overwhelming psychological distress, receive fewer points in the PIP assessment and are only entitled to a lower level of support, if any.

The Public Law Project who are representing the individual who brought this challenge will argue in court that those changes are discriminatory and unfair and should not have been implemented without a consultation.

The case will be heard in the High Court on 12-13 December 2017.

Svetlana Kotova, Disability Justice Project Co-ordinator at Inclusion London said:

“We have always believed that these changes are discriminatory and unfair and should have never been introduced.  The DWP introduced them in a rush to reverse decisions of the Upper Tribunal and to prevent thousands of people who need this support from receiving higher awards of PIP.  They have done this when thousands upon thousands of Disabled people are losing their benefits already.

“We have to remember that this challenge is taken in a context when the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with disabilities found systematic and grave violations of Disabled people’s rights a year ago.  And again in August it called the situation Disabled people are in a ‘human catastrophe’.  The UN specifically called on the Government to repeal changes to PIP regulations because they breach our human rights under the Convention.”

More information about the challenge here

http://www.publiclawproject.org.uk/news/85/pip-discrimination-challenge-reaches-the-high-court