On 4th December 2013, the Independent reported a landmark ruling by the Court of Appeal under the headline: “Fitness to work test DOES disadvantage mentally ill: Court of Appeal upholds ruling against Government. Hundreds of thousands of people with learning difficulties, mental health problems and autism have to go through the Work Capability Assesment to find out if they are eligible for Employment Support Allowance.”
The Court of Appeal had upheld a ruling that the Government’s controversial fitness to work test does disadvantage people with mental health problems (and people with learning disabilities and those on the autistic spectrum). The Department for Work and Pensions had appealed an earlier ruling of the Upper Tribunal on this issue.
The Independent noted that “The Court of Appeal decision means a judicial review can now be brought against the policy, unless DWP take the matter to the Supreme Court”.
And indeed a judicial review is now pending. The 13th January 2014 brought this interesting exchange in the Commons:
Helen Jones (Shadow Minister (Home Affairs); Warrington North, Labour)
As the Court of Appeal recently threw out the Government’s appeal against the decision that the work capability assessment disadvantages those with long-term mental health problems and learning disabilities such as autism, will the Minister accept that the test is simply not designed to deal with such people? What will he do about that?
Michael Penning (Hemel Hempstead, Conservative)
The Harrington report referred to that matter specifically. Ensuring that people with hidden disabilities get all the help we can give them is something that is close to my heart, but the Harrington pilot is on hold because of the judicial review.