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Court of Appeal gives judgment in Universal Credit transitional protection case

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In The Queen (oao TD, AD and Patricia Reynolds) v SSWP [2020] EWCA Civ 618 the Court of Appeal declared that the enforced “migration” of the claimants onto Universal Credit without any transition protection breached their rights under Article 14 of the ECHR. They had claimed Universal Credit after their entitlement to “legacy benefits” was terminated. This termination transpired to be an error caused by the Secretary of State; but the application of the so-called “lobster pot” principle meant that once they had claimed UC they could not return to the legacy benefits. The result was a substantial reduction of income. Had they remained on legacy benefits and transferred to UC in a process of “managed migration” they would have received transitional protection. Richard Drabble QC (leading Tom Royston) appeared for the Claimants.

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