The government may have broken equality laws when introducing the total household benefits cap, according to watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Under the Public Sector Equality Duty, public bodies are legally obliged to demonstrate they have considered the potential effects of decisions on women, ethnic minorities and disabled people.
EHRC yesterday published an assessment of the 2010 spending review which found that in three cases the commission could not establish whether the government’s decisions met the PESD. This was due to a ‘lack of clarity as to where the true site of the decisions lay and whether or not some decisions were the responsibility of other government departments or the government as a whole.’
The £26,000 total household benefits cap, which comes into effect next April, was one of three cases where EHRC could not establish whether the PESD had been met. The assessment follows a Court of Appeal rule on three cases where it was found that the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 discriminated against disabled people as they did not allow for an additional room for an overnight carer or where children cannot share a bedroom because of disabilities.