Legal Bid Fails to Stop Housing Benefit Reforms

The High Court has dismissed a claim for a judicial review of the government’s decision to limit housing benefit payments for tenants in the private rented sector.  Charity Zacchaeus 2000 Trust argued the government acted outside the law in the way it implemented the change, and that work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith failed to comply with legislation on equality.  But Justice Underwood ruled the government did have the power to introduce the changes to the way local housing allowance payments are calculated, and was not in breach of section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. He criticised the form of the department’s equality impact assessment, but said the problems did not go far enough to constitute a ‘legal flaw’.  Read more on Inside Housing.