Taking DWP-UC and or their contractor to court for disability discrimination: your thoughts?

flatmovebenefits

See my letter to DWP, (personal information removed) and let me know your thoughts on this matter? I don't want to be subjected to this traumatic loop of abuse on the phone. Has anyone else with mental health Autism, OCD, Panic disorder, severe Anxiety taken or considered taking this cause of action? I have no intentions of making a complaint that goes nowhere. I have found throughout the years that unless you take court action you'll get ignored.

To: DWP Complaints – Universal Credit

Subject: Formal Complaint – Failure to Make Reasonable Adjustments, Harassment, Related Service Failures, and Worsening of Mental Health (UC Ref: ****….) – Legal Basis Attached

Date: 04 October 2025

Claim details

UC Claim Ref: ****….

NI: ****…

Preferred contact: Email only (no phone calls, no text messages, no post)

Dear Complaints Team,

1) Summary of the complaint

I am making a formal complaint about repeated failures to respect my disability-related communication needs, distressing and intrusive phone contact, threats of in-person contact, and related decision-making risks on my case. These actions have caused significant distress and disrupted my ability to manage my claim safely.

2) Background

I migrated from ESA Support Group to Universal Credit on 3 October 2025 via Managed Migration.

My ESA award letter dated 13 February 2025 confirmed £244.65 per week, including the Severe Disability Premium (SDP).

I expect UC to reflect equivalent protection through LCWRA from day one and Transitional Protection, including the SDP transitional element.

Activity/earnings: I am not employed and not self-employed. I undertake very limited, therapeutic writing activity for rehabilitation with £0.00 earnings. This is not gainful self-employment. I will report any actual net income if and when it arises.

3) What has gone wrong

Reasonable adjustments ignored. Despite clear requests for no telephone and no texts and for written-only communication, I was repeatedly contacted by phone/text.

Forced phone route that violated my adjustments. DWP correspondence did not provide any email address and instructed me to telephone. This forced me against my will into a phone-only route. When I attempted to comply using accessibility tools, I was trapped in an automated phone loop (IVR), which prevented progression to written handling and directly breached my adjustments.

Systemic exclusion via IVR. The IVR system constitutes a systemic barrier that excludes disabled claimants from safe access to services and violates the anticipatory duty under the Equality Act 2010 to remove barriers in policies, practices, and systems.

Distressing/harassing contact and forced disclosures. I was required to repeat sensitive personal information to multiple agents; calls were intrusive and hectoring; some were abandoned/dropped.

Threats of home visits/mandatory attendance. I was told to expect home visits or to attend the Jobcentre despite my documented adjustment needs and distress.

Decision-making risk. There remains a risk of misclassifying my therapeutic activity as gainful self-employment and applying the Minimum Income Floor (MIF) even though my earnings are £0 and the activity is non-commercial.

Contractor conduct. Much of the poor contact occurred via the UC helpline (Teleperformance). I understand DWP is responsible for contractors’ acts on live cases.

4) Impact

Worsening of my mental health (medically evidenced): your contact practices and refusal to honour adjustments have aggravated my conditions, causing heightened anxiety, sleep disturbance, and relapse of symptoms. I will rely on medical evidence to demonstrate the deterioration and its causal link to DWP’s conduct, including adjustment breaches, phone/text contact, and IVR trapping.

Loss of time and disruption to my therapeutic routine.

Reduced capacity to engage in safe, paced activity.

5) Legal framework (for the investigation)

Equality Act 2010:

s.20–21 – failure to make reasonable adjustments (written-only route; no calls/texts; providing a viable email channel rather than phone-only).

s.26 – harassment: unwanted conduct related to disability creating a hostile/degrading environment.

s.15 – discrimination arising from disability: unfavourable treatment because of disability-related needs (e.g., insisting on phone-only processes/IVR).

s.19 – indirect discrimination: blanket PCPs (phone/attendance) put disabled people at particular disadvantage without adequate justification.

s.27 – victimisation: any detriment after I raised discrimination concerns.

s.109 – vicarious liability: DWP liable for Teleperformance’s acts on the UC helpline.

s.149 – Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED): duty to have due regard to removing barriers/advancing equality.

ECHR (via HRA 1998): Article 8 (respect for private life/dignity). Article 3 (inhuman/degrading treatment) reserved where severity is shown.

Personal injury (psychiatric injury): I also intend to pursue a common-law personal injury claim for psychiatric harm caused and/or aggravated by the conduct complained of, in addition to Equality Act damages for injury to feelings.

Illustrative authorities: FirstGroup v Paulley [2017] UKSC 4; Archibald v Fife [2004] UKHL 32; R (Bracking) v SSWP [2013] EWCA Civ 1345; City of York v Grosset [2018] EWCA Civ 1105; Pieretti v Enfield [2010] EWCA Civ 1104.

6) Limitation (time limits)

Under Equality Act 2010, s.118, I have six months less one day from the date of the act complained of to bring a County Court claim. Where there is a continuing course of conduct, time runs from the last act in the series. Each new breach (e.g., any further phone/text contact, refusal to provide an email route, or IVR trapping) will start time running again.

(For personal injury, the general limitation period is three years from the date of injury or date of knowledge.)

7) Outcomes sought

A. Record & confirm my adjustments (with marker ID).

No telephone and no text messages.

Written-only communication via email (no post).

Extra time to respond in writing.

For urgent matters: email only (do not call or text).

Please confirm the Reasonable Adjustment marker ID and what staff must do if it is breached (stop calls/texts; use email only; do not close/sanction for non-phone contact).

B. Put my award on the correct footing.

Confirm LCWRA from day one (carried over from ESA Support Group) and add/backdate it if missing.

Apply Transitional Protection, including the SDP transitional element.

Provide a full calculation (standard allowance, LCWRA, housing, TP/SDP TE, and TP erosion note).

C. Confirm decision: not gainfully self-employed / disapply MIF.

Written decision that my current activity is not gainful; MIF disapplied unless circumstances change.

I will report any actual earnings if/when they arise.

D. Investigate and prevent recurrence.

Investigate the repeated phone/text contact, the absence of an email route on letters, and the systemic IVR barrier that forced me into phone contact against my adjustments.

Confirm actions with staff/contractor to prevent recurrence (guidance/training; ensure future letters include a compliant email route for me).

E. Service recovery.

Written apology.

Consider financial redress under the DWP complaints policy.

8) Evidence and chronology (available on request)

I can provide notes of my adjustment requests; call/SMS logs (dates/times); and copies of letters that omitted any email address and instructed telephone contact.

9) Escalation and legal intent

This complaint forms part of a wider Equality Act 2010 claim already in preparation. I have issued formal legal notice to DWP regarding multiple breaches, including failure to make reasonable adjustments, harassment, and injury to feelings. If this is not resolved promptly, I will issue proceedings in the County Court without further notice. Once proceedings are active, any further breaches—including unwanted phone/text contact, failure to provide/accept an email route, or IVR trapping—will be included in my claim as continuing acts and/or by amendment. In addition to Equality Act damages, I intend to pursue a personal injury claim for medically evidenced psychiatric injury, causally linked to DWP’s conduct. I am not pursuing soft escalation routes; I am pursuing enforceable legal remedy.

10) How to reply

Please acknowledge this complaint and provide a full written response within 14 days by email only. Do not contact me by phone, text, or post. I do not have an online journal set up.

Yours faithfully,

***…

Preferred contact: Email only (no phone, no texts, no post)

This complaint is submitted with full legal standing and expectation of rights-compliant handling under the Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights Act 1998.

……………………………………

Dear Teleperformance / Universal Credit Contractor,

I am writing to formally place your organisation on notice that I intend to issue a County Court discrimination claim under the Equality Act 2010 for multiple breaches, including failure to make reasonable adjustments and injury to feelings.

Today, 3 October 2025, I received a letter referencing Universal Credit migration (Ref: ***…), instructing me to make a claim by 21 November 2025. The letter states that a prior letter dated 7 August 2025 was sent to me regarding migration from ESA. I did not receive any such letter.

Upon contacting 0800 169 0328 today, I provided my personal details to an agent who then transferred me to an automated service. After repeating my details, I was connected to a male agent who abruptly ended the call. I called back to raise a complaint and reiterated that I do not wish to communicate by phone due to my health conditions. I requested email communication as a reasonable adjustment under Section 20 of the Equality Act 2010. This request was refused.

On my second call, a female agent assured me that pressing option 2 would connect me directly to someone. I trusted this assurance, but was again routed to an automated service, forced to repeat my personal information, and eventually connected to an agent named ***…. After providing extensive details, the call was cut off.

At 14:17, I received a text message warning me to call Universal Credit again or risk losing money. This caused further distress. I called again and was connected to an agent named ***…, who spoke to me in a harsh and dismissive manner. When I asked what support she could offer, she responded rudely and transferred me back to the automated system. I was again forced to repeat my details and was connected to an agent named ***….

I requested reasonable adjustments again—specifically, to communicate by email due to the symptoms of my condition. ***… refused. I asked to speak to a manager. He said none were available but offered to arrange a call on 6 October 2025. I explained that I have a hospital appointment that day and, due to my disability, require a scheduled time for any call. I requested that the manager contact me by email and offered to provide my email address. ***… refused and stated that email contact was not an option. He also claimed there is no Universal Credit email address or that he could not provide one.

This entire process has consumed half my working day. As a permitted self-employed individual, this has caused financial loss and will continue to impact my mental health and ability to work. I have suffered multiple breaches of the Equality Act 2010 in a single day, including repeated failures to make reasonable adjustments and disregard for my disability-related communication needs.

I intend to claim for injury to feelings in the middle Vento band, as well as for loss of future potential earnings. I will not tolerate being subjected to this distress repeatedly. ***… statement that Universal Credit can text me whenever they choose and that I must call them “like a slave” was particularly degrading and unacceptable.

I retain full documentation and evidence of all incidents described above. You are now formally on notice of my intention to pursue legal action.

Legal Basis

•     Equality Act 2010, Section 20 – Duty to make reasonable adjustments

•     Section 21 – Failure to comply with the duty constitutes discrimination

•     Section 149 – Public Sector Equality Duty

Supporting Case Law

•     Finnigan v Northumbria Police [2013] EqLR 604 – Failure to provide alternative communication methods amounted to discrimination.

•     Project Management Institute v Latif [2007] IRLR 579 – The duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory and must be considered proactively.

•     Royal Bank of Scotland v Allen [2009] EqLR 840 – Failure to provide accessible services constituted unlawful discrimination.

I require a written response to this notice and the issues raised within 14 days, and this response must be provided by email. If I do not receive a satisfactory reply, I will proceed with issuing a County Court claim without further notice.

Yours sincerely,

***…