R (on the application of DS and others) (Appellants) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Respondent)

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom heard appeals from two groups of appellants challenging the lawfulness of the revised benefit cap. The benefit cap was introduced by the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 and came into force on 7 November 2016. The benefit cap limits the amount of housing benefit and income support that can be received by a household, with a lower limit of £23,000 per year for households in Greater London and £20,000 per year for households outside of Greater London. The appellants argued that the benefit cap amounted to unlawful discrimination under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. The court considered the nature and scope of the appellants' rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, the concept of status, the formulation of the complaints, the identification of comparators, and the test of justification. The court concluded that the benefit cap did not amount to unlawful discrimination and dismissed the appeals. The court held that the benefit cap fell within the ambit of the appellants' rights under article 8 of the Convention, but that the government's failure to exempt certain groups from the cap was not manifestly without reasonable foundation. The court also considered the relevance of the UNCRC and concluded that the government had not breached article 3.1 of the UNCRC. The court held that the benefit cap was a proportionate interference with the appellants' rights and dismissed the appeals.