A mum who said Universal Credit would have left her with £8.98 for a month has won the right to challenge the benefit in the High Court.

Charmaine Parkin, 34, was granted permission today to fight a formal Judicial Review against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Her lawyers Leigh Day say a key part of the benefit for self-employed people called the Minimum Income Floor (MIF) is “unjustified discrimination” and “irrational”.

If the case is successful, it could force the DWP into a U-turn affecting hundreds of thousands of self-employed claimants who are on hard times.

Last year the DWP estimated 400,000 self-employed claimants would be hit by the MIF by 2022 – shaving more than £1billion a year off their benefits.

The forecast was "uncertain" though, and the rollout of UC has been slowed down since it was made.

Actor Charmaine, from Brighton, said rules for the self-employed under UC left her borrowing from family and feeding her two children through food banks.

In a statement today she said: "I am delighted that the court has granted permission for my judicial review.

"I am determined to hold the government accountable for its flawed universal credit system which is causing misery to so many.

"It cannot be right that a system designed to help support people in work has resulted in some people being better off if they give up their work.”

The MIF bans self-employed people from claiming more benefits under Universal Credit than if they were employed by someone else on minimum wage.

It is designed to stop loss-making businesses being propped up by the taxpayer.

But the MIF meant Charmaine would have been £393 a month better off if she quit her career and moved onto the equivalent of jobseekers’ allowance, her lawyers say.

Legal papers stated that if she’d paid her landlord in November 2017, even after her earnings she would have had £8.98 left to pay for a month’s food, travel, bills and council tax.

A date is yet to be set for the judicial review.

Tom Short, a solicitor from law firm Leigh Day, said: "Our client is one of the many self-employed people suffering from the application of the MIF.

"The effect of the MIF is particularly harsh on those who work in areas such as the entertainment industry and farming where fluctuations in income are common.

"Our client’s situation shows just how illogical and inconsistent the universal credit system is and we look forward to putting her arguments to the court."

Just as Charmaine launched her case, the DWP agreed a new one-year grace period where people moving to UC will be exempt from the floor.

But campaigners have said the government must go further.

And Charmaine, who struggled to find work after moving home and was forced to UC when she split up with her partner, said that was “absolutely not long enough”.

“I thought Universal Credit could give me financial stability, help me to budget and settle in,” she said last year.

“I was very wrong."

A DWP spokeswoman said when we last covered Charmaine’s case: “We are unable to comment on an ongoing legal case.

“Universal Credit strikes the balance between supporting entrepreneurship and being fair to the taxpayer by helping self-employed people during the first year while they establish their business.”

Read More

Latest UK politics news

Source: Read Full Article