Call for evidence re disabled students and universal credit

From Leigh Day -

Tessa Gregory and Lucy Cadd from the law firm Leigh Day are bringing a judicial review challenge to the DWP’s policy which prevents disabled students from making a claim to UC. They are seeking further evidence to support the judicial review (in the form of case studies).

Students are disqualified from making a claim to UC. However, Regulation 14(b) Universal Credit Regulations 2013 provides exceptions to the requirement not to be receiving education. In the case of our client, the relevant exception is that she is in receipt of a qualifying benefit (attendance allowance, disability living allowance or personal independence payment), in her case being PIP. The exception stipulates that she must also have been determined to have limited capability for work (LCW). However, UC will not offer students who do not yet have a LCW determination, a WCA. Therefore on making her claim for UC, our client was told that a work capability assessment would not be provided for her in order for her to be determined as LCW and her claim for UC was closed.

The Secretary of State’s policy ‘Students: eligibility, conditionality and student income - v 16.0 (2019)’ states that the exception in Reg14(b) only applies to disabled individuals who have already been determined as having LCW and who are seeking to become students. The exemption therefore does not apply to disabled students who attempt to claim UC whilst already undertaking a course of study.

We would be very interested to hear of others who are in a similar position to our client. If there are people you have represented who have been in the same or similar situation we would be extremely grateful if you could provide a short summary of their situation to us (gaining their prior authority to do so). We are seeking supportive case studies for the judicial review. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information. Our contact details are Tessa Gregory – .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and Lucy Cadd – .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).