01.06.12
Disabled people's human rights must be factored into housing benefit
Source: Public Sector Executive May/June 12
John Wadham, general counsel for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, explains why it intervened in an important legal case on disability and housing benefit.
The additional needs of disabled children and adults must be taken into account when their housing benefit is calculated, following an important legal ruling in the Court of Appeal.
Three families brought proceedings against their councils and the DWP, saying their housing benefit did not meet their housing need and that the rules were discriminatory. The Court of Appeal agreed, saying the regulations did discriminate – though by the time of the ruling in May, the rules had already been changed to cover the circumstances of two of the three families.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission intervened in the case of ‘Burnip v Birmingham City Council (respondent) and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (second respondent)’.
The Commission praised what it called the Court of Appeal’s “common sense ruling”, which it said will help stop disabled people from being evicted if the housing benefit cap means they or their parents do not get enough money to pay all the rent for a suitable home. John Wadham, general counsel for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “Our intervention in the Burnip case has helped to ensure that all disabled people claiming housing benefit do not face indirect discrimination. If it was not for the Human Rights Act, disabled people may be more likely fall into rent arrears because they cannot afford the home that meets their needs and then face eviction.
“The rulings underline our analysis of the Government’s 2010 spending review, published [on May 14], which looked at potential effects of those decisions on women, ethnic minorities and disabled people. It calls for the development of a common model of analysis to predict the likely equality effects of policy and earlier use of the equality duties to ensure better targeting of funds and greater value for money.”
The other relevant cases involved Lucy Trengrove, who has since died and had her fight carried on by her mother, versus Walsall Metropolitan Council and the DWP, and the Gorry family versus Wiltshire Council and the DWP.
The Commission explained: “Mr Burnip has carers 24 hours a day to help him as he is severely disabled. He only got housing benefit for a one bedroom flat, as that was all he was entitled to at the time, but needed a second bedroom for his carers to sleep in overnight. Ms Trengrove, who has died, was in a similar situation. Two of the three siblings in the Gorry family are disabled – one has Down’s Syndrome, another has Spina Bifida. The family could only claim for a three bedroom home, so the two disabled children would have to share a bedroom. Their disabilities made this impossible.
“The Government has already changed the regulations for calculating housing benefits for disabled adults, but will now have to change it for families with disabled children.”
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