In a highly significant judgement the High Court ruled that the Work and Pensions Secretary had discriminated on the grounds of disability against unpaid carers who look after severely disabled people for more than 35 hours a week.
The ruling applies to around 1,400 people who are in receipt of the Carers’ Allowance.
The Government included the payment in its benefit cap of £26,000 a year, which is due to fall to £20,000 next April or £23,000 for those living in London.
Its failure to exempt the carers from the benefits cap amounted to “discrimination†and was not lawful, Mr Justice Collins said.
He said: “Nowhere in the impact assessments or in what was put before Parliament was the effect on the disabled of loss of family carers raised.
Nearest tube: Elephant & Castle underground station (Northern and Bakerloo lines).
Nearest Railway Station: Elephant & Castle
Buses from Elephant and Castle: ask bus driver for Burgess Park. Bus numbers: 12, 171, 148, 176, 68, 484, 42, 40, 45