Dr Yusuf Ali Osman, who is registered blind, brought a judicial review of the DWP’s systems for communicating with Disabled people after it failed to provide him with important information about his benefits in ways he could access.
Dr Osman alleged Work and Pensions Secretary, Mel Stride, was in breach of his legal obligation to communicate with blind and visually impaired people in an accessible manner.
The High Court ruled in Dr Osman’s favour after his lawyers at Leigh Day argued the DWP’s systems were putting him at a substantial disadvantage compared to sighted benefits recipients.
His case was backed by the charity RNIB, which says his experience is common and has serious consequences for blind and partially sighted people, including their benefits being stopped and penalties being imposed.
Dr Osman can only access correspondence in either electronic format (such as text sent in the body of an email, or as an accessible PDF or Word attachment) or in Braille.
However, despite repeated requests, the DWP continued to send him information about his disability and employment benefits in printed hard copy letters or as scanned inaccessible PDFs attached to emails.
Documents in these formats cannot be used with a Screenreader, which many blind and visually impaired people rely on to read out the text of a document.
Dr Osman received some letters from the DWP in Braille, but these were often many weeks late, meaning he risked missing important deadlines.
The High Court declared that the DWP had discriminated against registered blind and sight impaired people receiving personal independent payments (PIP) and employment and support allowance (ESA) who had requested certain alternative formats by failing to make reasonable adjustments to its policy of sending hard copy letters, in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
The Court’s order records that:
- The DWP apologises to Dr Osman for the way in which his correspondence was sent.
- Both parties note that the DWP has subsequently altered some of the processes that were in place up to 13 September 2022 (the date the Court gave Dr Osman’s case permission to proceed to a final hearing), and that further changes are being implemented, developed, or considered.
- The DWP will update Dr Osman as to the progress of these changes in six and 12 months.
- Dr Osman will be invited to act as a tester for the changes to the IT system for PIP, and to the changes proposed for the DWP-wide technical solution.
The court also ordered that the DWP pay Dr Osman £7,000 compensation in settlement of the claim and pay his legal costs.
For more information see High Court declares DWP in breach of equality laws after failure to communicate accessibly with blind benefits claimants available from leighday.co.uk