The High court decided that the Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Act 2013 was incompatible with rights under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
This Act was introduced following the Poundland case (see our report of Reilly and Wilson v Secretary of State which also has a summary of this case) in order to stop claimants who were wrongly sanctioned from claiming back their benefits.
This judgement only applies in cases where a claimant has appealed to a court or tribunal.
The Government has announced its intention to appeal this decision.
For more information see http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/04/high-court-back-to-work-legislation