A disabled woman will learn after a court hearing held 25 and 26 April if her challenge against the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) practice of taking money from benefits to hand to energy and other utility firms is upheld.
The DWP operates a Third Party Deductions (TPDs) scheme that gives energy and water firms the right to seize a proportion of a person’s benefits directly from their benefits to repay debts.
Papers lodged by the DWP with the courts showed that in May 2021, there were 198,357 TPDs in relation to water debts and in February 2022 there were around 35,000 TPDs in respect of electricity and about 27,700 in respect of gas debts. [1]
However, in September 2022, Helen Timson secured a ruling criticising the way that the DWP operates the scheme – and in particular the way that the written guidance is drafted.
The ruling would have led to the Government needing to significantly alter the guidance, making it clear that benefit claimants should be given the opportunity to make representations or provide relevant information prior to the decision to make the deduction being taken.
According to legal intelligence website Lexis Nexis, the original challenge succeeded “on the ground that the guidance unlawfully gave the impression that representations from claimants were unnecessary before a deduction order was made.”
But rather than accept the ruling, the Government appealed the decision so it could continue to take money from vulnerable energy customers and hand it to energy firms.
Helen Timson, from Leicester, commented:
“The DWP doesn't bother to check if we are left with enough money for food or rent and firms don’t seem terribly motivated to ensure they don’t take too much or don’t take money when nothing is owed or even that they pay our money into the correct account.”
Helen told Disability News Service last summer that she had even had to cancel a cancer scan because she could not afford the taxi fare, thanks to the deductions imposed on her and, on other occasions, she has not been able to pay her rent.
According to Trussell Trust research, almost half (47%) of people using foodbanks were facing deductions from their benefits and 13% of these people faced sanctions due to action from third party groups, such as energy firms.
Stuart Bretherton of Fuel Poverty Action said,
“Welfare benefits are supposed to be a bottom line - the minimum to cover our human rights to food, shelter, and health. Yet the DWP thinks it can confiscate ¼ of this – and then pass the money to corporations that have put people in debt by charging prices many just can’t afford. They want to do this without even hearing the circumstances. Helen Timson is a hero to many for insisting that this pickpocketing of the poorest is actually illegal.”
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, added:
“Helen is bravely standing up for the thousands people who are affected by third party deductions and trying to ensure that no deductions are made which may make someone’s health or disability worse than it already is. People will have been left living in cold damp homes as a result of these deductions which could pose significant short and long term health risks.
“The DWP should be doing what it can to support those in debt, not causing more pain by taking money from the vulnerable and handing it to energy firms.”
On Tuesday, protestors from Fuel Poverty Action, Disabled People Against Cuts and the Warm This Winter campaign will gather to support Helen at the Court of Appeal in London.
Members of the public can support Helen by writing to their MPs using a template letter created by Fuel Poverty Action.
Helen Timson is represented by Emma Varley of Bindman Solicitors and counsel Jenni Richards KC and Tom Royston.
Helen Timson can be contacted via twitter on @HelsTimson
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