​Court to hear disabled woman's claim against Norfolk Council's care charges policy

The 24-year-old woman, who has Down Syndrome, claims that the council’s decisions to cut the Minimum Income Guarantee for working age disabled people, and introduce a new policy of including higher rate disability benefits in calculating the charge, breach the Human Rights Act 1998 and are unlawful.
 
As a disabled person who is unable to work to supplement her income, the change has left the woman with such a severe dent in her income, out of which she must pay towards day care and respite care, that it will make it harder for her to move into supported independent living accommodation. Her mother fears that after her death, her daughter will not be prepared for life alone.
 
The woman is represented by Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith, who said:
 
“We make the case that it is discriminatory to expect our client, whose disabilities have left her unable to work, to pay for her extra care costs out of the lower income she now has because of the cut to Minimum Income Guarantee.”