Successful Judicial Review of Benefits Payment in the UK
R (Johnson and others) and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2019] EWHC 23 (Admin) is an English High Court case relating to the benefit payment, Universal Credit. Universal...
Social Protection
The Two Child Tax Limit Perpetuates the Myth of Poverty as a Moral Failing
Families who have a third child born after 6 April 2017 will not receive child tax credits for the third child (this has been known as a ‘two-child limit’). The...
Austerity Policies in the UK an Impermissible Retrogressive Measure
Under the umbrella of austerity, the UK has pursued a punishing regime of cuts to social welfare benefits and public services. This week the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty...
The Australian Legal Assistance Sector and the Critical Importance of Justice to Human Lives
In February 2017, I was invited to be an ‘expert adviser’ for the Law Council of Australia’s (LCA) ‘Justice Project’. I was initially reticent. Senate Inquiries (2004; 2009; 2015), reviews,...
Discriminatory changes to UK disability benefits: some hope from judicial intervention?
Welfare benefit law and policy has seen considerable controversy over the last few years, as existing benefits are changed and reduced. This April saw the annual changes to benefit levels...
Homeless at Home: Forced Internal Displacement In India
In September 2017, the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSP), which was designated as the second largest dam in the world. Most of the Indian media...
Proposal to make ‘disadvantaged socio-economic status’ a prohibited ground of discrimination under Irish law
The Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017, was introduced in the lower house of the Irish Parliament at the end of last year and is currently working its way through the...
Djazia and Bellili v Spain: Eviction and Homelessness under the OP-ICESCR
When the private housing sector fails the State must use its resources to provide alternative housing, according to the latest case concluded by the CESCR. The Committee also makes its...
A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: The Promise and Reality of U.S. Tax Reform
The U.S. tax reform law is dangerous for poor and lower middle-class families. Superficially, this legislation may seem to benefit low income workers – that is exactly why it is...
Re-victimizing Victims of Sexual Assault: UK Child Benefit Laws
In the last few years, the UK has been relentlessly pursuing austerity measures and drastically reducing welfare expenditure. Today, as part of this trend, the government has restricted access to...
Can a State Refuse Migrant Family Allowances Due to Irregular Reunification?
In Osungu and Lokongo v. France (delivered on 8/9/2015), the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court”) rejected as “manifestly ill-founded” two applications submitted by Congolese regular migrants. The proceedings...
High Court in Belfast Finds the Northern Irish Executive Failed its Statutory Duty to Adopt a ‘Strategy’ to Tackle Poverty Based on ‘Objective Need’
On 30 June 2015 the High Court in Belfast ruled [2015] NIQB 59 that the Northern Irish Executive failed its statutory duty to adopt an identifiable strategy setting out how...
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