Three Rivers District Council discriminated against disabled people with its tax reduction scheme, a court has declared.
Claimants with severe disabilities who should have been exempt were forced to pay more than £1,500 because transitional protection was wrongly treated as surplus income in the council’s calculations.
Abbots Langley residents Mr and Mrs Bleakley were ‘migrated’ from the income replacement benefit Employment and Support Allowance to its replacement Universal Credit (UC) in 2025.
Part of their UC award was made up of the transitional protection which was there to ensure their income remained stable, but wrongly categorised in the tax reduction scheme designed to support those in financial need.
The High Court ruled this was discriminatory and unjustified as there was no change to the income or needs to trigger the large tax bill.
Three Rivers conceded the claim before the final hearing. It must pay damages and legal costs as well as refunding all the tax paid so far this year.
Mr Bleakley said: “Disabled people have been suffering unfairly. This helps to right that wrong.”
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The order resulting from the case applies to all local authorities, meaning they must now disregard this transitional protection in future cases.
Bindmans public law and housing solicitor Emma Pein said: “All local authorities must take account of this important court order which will benefit disabled people across the country”.
Three Rivers District Council declined to comment.
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