Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Government ‘unlawfully discriminated’ against two severely disabled men
Esther McVey under the spotlight for payment cuts imposed under universal credit
A judge ruled Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey had unlawfully discriminated against the two

THE GOVERNMENT unlawfully discriminated against two severely disabled men who had been moved onto Universal Credit (UC), the High Court ruled yesterday.

In the first legal test of the roll out of UC, Mr Justice Lewis ruled that Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey had unlawfully discriminated against the men, who lived alone without a carer and saw their benefits cut by around £178 a month.

TP, a terminally ill 52-year-old, had his payments cut under UC while undergoing “gruelling chemotherapy” because he briefly moved from London to live with his parents in Dorset.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A Universal Credit sign on a door of a job centre plus in east London
Features / 5 July 2025
5 July 2025

The government’s retreat on PIP still leaves 150,000 new universal credit claimants facing halved benefits from April 2026, creating a discriminatory two-tier welfare system that campaigners must continue fighting, writes DR DYLAN MURPHY

Protesters on Whitehall in London, as Chancellor of the Exch
Features / 6 May 2025
6 May 2025

A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall leaves Downing Stree
Features / 24 March 2025
24 March 2025
Any positives from the government’s green paper proposals are vastly overshadowed by the scale of the cuts to vulnerable low-income households, argues JENNY RATHBONE MS