A post on a County Court case, one well worth looking at for the application of public law principles, the Equality Act and reasonableness. I'm working from a note of judgment, so any quotes should be taken as being from a note, rather than a transcript....
An obligatory discretion?
Rutherford & Ors v Secretary of State for Work And Pensions [2014] EWHC 1613 (Admin) This was the judicial review, supported by CPAG, of the failure of the bedroom tax regulations to address the position of tenants where a bedroom was needed for...
Unsuccessful challenge to 52 weeks rule in Housing Benefit Regs
Obrey v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2013] EWCA Civ 1584 concerns an appeal against an Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) decision which set aside the findings of the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) that Reg....
Article 14 in Hereford
A proper note to follow, but there has been a significant First Tier Tribunal appeal in a bedroom tax related case in Hereford. The decision is here (and also on the FTT decision page in the menu above). This is an LHA decision, not on the bedroom tax. While...
The (absence of) reasons in Redcar
You may well have seen or heard press stories on a First Tier tribunal bedroom tax appeal decision in Redcar and Cleveland. There has been a lot of excitable comment about it representing a 'landmark appeal' and 'hope for 440,000 disabled'. Even the tenant's...
Ye’ll tak’ the high road*
As First Tier Tribunal bedroom tax decisions go, this one is a corker. Glasgow FTT has decided that the Regulations as applied to a severely disabled woman who could not share a bedroom with her partner amounted to an unjustified breach of Article 14, read...
And another one…
Another bedroom tax judicial review has just been issued. CPAG are acting in a judicial review by Paul and Susan Rutherford. Their grandson, Warren, suffers from grave cognitive and physical disabilities and requires 24 hour care by at least two people at...
Gateway B and Equality Act – summary hearing?
A quick note on an ongoing County Court case that raises some interesting questions. (As it is an ongoing case, all apparent statements of fact are as set out in the judgment and should be taken as being untested at trial). Leicester Housing Association Ltd...
Guest post by CPAG – disabled children and bedroom tax
Disabled children – “exempt” from the bedroom tax? At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday [6 March 2013] David Cameron claimed that “anyone with severely disabled children is exempt from the spare room subsidy”, more commonly known as the “bedroom tax”....
“Bright lines” and housing benefit
The re-design of the administration of housing benefit has sought to address the scheme's complexity in recent years - the local housing allowance is a particular example of this re-design, with the shift to flat rate payments according to household size. ...
DDA & DIY
Beedles v Guiness Northern Counties Limited (2010) High Court (Manchester) (QB) HQ10X02893 [Not on Bailii yet]. This is an intriguing case sent to us on the nature and extent of the duty to provide an auxiliary aid or service under S.24C Disability...
Homelessness – ‘due regard’ to disability
Pieretti v London Borough of Enfield [2010] EWCA Civ 1104 This is an odd case, in lots of ways, but what is decided in this appeal to the Court of Appeal is potentially of broader significance and certainly useful as clarification. The issue was whether, and...