Court of Appeal dismisses ESA / EU jobseeker appeal

Julia Smyth, instructed by GLD, represented the Respondent Secretary of State for Work and Pensions at the hearing on 15 March. The Appellant, represented by Helen Mountfield QC and Tom Royston, had argued that ESA was a labour market benefit, such that jobseekers from other Member States ought to be able to claim it. Domestic regulations prevent them from doing so. The Court of Appeal accepted the Secretary of State’s submissions that the Court of Justice of the European Union had taken a narrow approach to what was a labour market benefit, and that ESA’s predominant function was to provide a subsistence income for those with limited capability to work, rather than to “facilitate access to the labour market” in the EU law sense.