Whether creating a universal credit account and clicking "Make a claim" is sufficient to count as a defective claim for universal credit?
Moore and Others v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions CO/4081/2019.
On 18 October 2019, CPAG issued judicial review proceedings challenging the treatment of maternity allowance as unearned income in the calculation of universal credit awards.
LR and others v SSWP CO/3678/2019:
On 17 September 2019, CPAG filed a judicial review claim challenging the lower standard allowance in universal credit for lone parents who are under 25.
Permission to apply for judicial review was refused on the papers and the matter has now been listed for an oral hearing on 11/12/19.
Fratila and Tanase v SSWP CO/3632/2019:
On 15 October 2019, CPAG were granted permission by the High Court to bring judicial review proceedings on behalf of two EU nationals who were refused universal credit on the basis that their limited leave to remain in the UK under Appendix EU to the immigration rules (pre-settled status) was not a qualifying right of residence for the purposes of means-tested benefits.
Pantellerisco and others v SSWP CO/3572/2019:
On 12 September 2019, CPAG issued judicial review proceedings on behalf of a single parent and her children challenging the application of the benefit cap to the mother’s universal credit award despite the fact that she works 16 hours per week at national minimum wage simply because she is paid 4 weekly rather than monthly.
This case is a challenge to the UC rules that prevent certain 19 year olds that are in full-time, non-advanced education from being included in their parents’ claim, while they are also prevented from claiming UC in their own right.
Jackson & Others v SSWP CO/975/2019:
On 1st October 2019, CPAG were granted permission to apply for judicial review, challenging the requirement under the Pensions Act 2014 in conjunction with the Bereavement Support Payment Regulations 2017 that, in order to be entitled to Bereavement Support Payment (BSP) at the higher rate, the claimant must have been the deceased’s spouse or civil partner.
This case concerns entitlement to Widowed Parent’s Allowance (WPA) where the claimant and the deceased partner had undergone a religious ceremony and considered themselves to be and held themselves out as being legally married.
The First tier Tribunal found that the claimant had no entitlement to WPA, and permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal was refused, first by the FtT and then, on renewal, by the UT itself. Following a successful Cart style judicial review of the decision not to allow permission to appeal, the case has been remitted to the UT for a decision on the WPA entitlement. The case will be heard in the UT on 13/02/20.
These cases challenge the legality of the new past presence test (PPT), which requires a person to have been in the UK for 104 of the past 156 weeks before being eligible to claim Disability Living Allowance.
Permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal has now been granted in both cases and they will be heard together on 21st and 22nd January 2020.
R (Johnson, Woods, Barrett and Stewart) v SSWP [2019] EWHC 23 (Admin):
This case concerns a judicial review challenging the rigidity of the assessment period regime under universal credit (UC) and the way that earned income is calculated, which results in some claimants being treated as earning two monthly salaries in one assessment period.
Judgment was given on 11 January 2019 finding in favour of the claimants, but the SSWP has now been given permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
