The compensation payments follow two rulings by the High Court between 2018 and 2019 and the DWP’s failed attempt to challenge it in the Court of Appeal in 2020
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed how many benefit claimants are set to receive a significant compensation payment.
According to the benefits department, around 57,000 people are set to receive payments thought to be as large as £5,000. Those set to receive the money were those receiving “legacy” disability benefits and were moved onto Universal Credit in the last few years. These claimants were found to have lost their severe disability premiums (SDP) payment in the move, with the court ruling that the DWP did not do enough to ensure their incomes were protected when they moved over.
The compensation payments follow two rulings by the High Court between 2018 and 2019 and the DWP’s failed attempt to challenge it in the Court of Appeal in 2020. The courts found that monthly loss of income in both cases amounted to around £180.
The compensation scheme was announced earlier this month after the DWP settled a case brought by law firm Leigh Day on behalf of 275 claimants. Each applicant was awarded between £200 and £3,000 in damages. Although, Leigh Day estimates payouts could be as much as £5,000.
Details of the scheme were confirmed by the DWP’s Director General for Fraud, Disability & Health, Neil Couling, in a recent Work and Pensions Committee meeting. He told MPs: “The courts have decided on all of these, and we are now moving to implement the various judgements of the courts in those cases. Because the courts decided that the transitional protection we were providing was not large enough, it needed to cover other elements.”
The senior civil servant outlined three groups of people who can expect a payment, and these were:
- People due an additional amount of transitional SDP element for 2020 onwards, and who continue to receive Universal Credit
- People due an additional amount for the period between 2018 and 2020, and who continue to receive Universal Credit
- People due an additional amount relating from 2018 onwards who are no longer receiving Universal Credit
The DWP boss said there were around 35,000 people in this first group who can likely expect their payments first. This is because their cases are to be the “easiest” to handle as payments can be made automatically using the digital system. The second group contains around 15,000 people and the third has around 7,000.
Mr Couling says the latter two groups all have “mixed clerical and digital records”, which the benefits department needs to find a solution to address. Ryan Bradshaw, a partner at Leigh Day, represented claimants across the past cases. Responding to the new details of the compensation scheme, he said: “It is regrettable that six years since we won our first case regarding the removal of Disability Premiums under Universal Credit, the DWP is still making severely disabled people wait for proper compensation.
On the ruling, a DWP spokesperson said: “We have already started paying the money owed to all eligible customers who have moved to Universal Credit from the Enhanced Disability Premium.”
