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Helping the economy should not mean bullying the disabled
EMMA COTTON explains the significance of a recent win at the High Court for a disability rights campaigner against the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions over a ‘misleading’ and ‘unfair’ consultation on social security cuts 
Ellen Clifford (right) outside the High Court with her solicitor from Public Law Project, Aoife O’Reilly

DESPITE losing in the High Court over proposals to make changes to the Work Capability Assessment, the government is pushing ahead with plans that will further impoverish disabled people on a mass scale.

In January, the judgment was handed down in the legal case taken by disabled activist Ellen Clifford against the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. 

The judge, Mr Justice Calver, found in her favour, ruling that the consultation on the proposals was “misleading,” “rushed” and “unfair,” squashing plans by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to cut nearly £5,000 a year in social security (“welfare benefits”) from almost half-a-million disabled people.

Background

The case and outcome

What now?

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