Author: alanmarkey

By Posted on Posted in Members

Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is urgently looking for case studies following the Court of Appeal’s decision in R(Rutherford) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2016] EWCA Civ 29, which is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court. They are keen to hear about any families with disabled children who have been affected by the housing benefit size criteria (or “the bedroom tax”) because they need an extra room for a carer or carers to stay overnight.  …

CPAG is looking for bedroom tax cases (urgent) Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Campaigns, PIP, Welfare Reform Tagged with ,

Patrick Hill writes: “Since the introduction of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), there have been increasing reports from advisors across the UK that the Severe Disability Premium (SDP) has not been added to income based benefits such as: Employment Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support.  Nor have there been claims made to those income based benefits that might become payable due to entitlement to SDP.   When Universal Credit (UC) begins to take a firmer hold, and includes people with disabilities, an additional amount recognising a …

SDP – get it while you can! Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Welfare Reform Tagged with ,

Neil Bateman writes: Many thanks to everyone who supplied examples of poor practice around MRs by DWP staff.  They were very effective.  Please continue to send me examples of bad practice in the light of the following: The DWP accept that there have been widespread problems and have now issued Gatekeeper Memo 03.15.38 in an attempt to tackle the problems.  The main text of this is set out below.   I hope this helps people to challenge poor practice, but better still. I …

Mandatory reconsideration Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Campaigns Tagged with ,

NAWRA understands that ITV news are planning another feature about sanctions very shortly. If NAWRA members have any clients who have been unfairly sanctioned, and who could either be interviewed or be used as part of anonymised case studies, please contact Penny Marshall on 0207 430 4541 or 07876 313 533 asap. Thanks. And happy new year.