Miss Susan Hopkins v Department of Work and Pensions — 2021

The Claimant was registered blind and the Respondent accepted that she was disabled. The parties agreed that the proposed move from Work Capability Assessment work to Universal Credit was a provision, criterion or practice and that it put the Claimant at a substantial disadvantage because of the difficulty JAWS had interacting with Excel files used in the Universal Credit system.

The Tribunal found that the Respondent was entitled to take account of the Claimant's written notice that she intended to retire on 31 July 2019, which she had not revoked, and of the health reasons she had given for that decision. It found it was reasonable for the Respondent to consider adjustments to her existing role first, to offer tailored one-to-one training, and to try the Performance Lead responsibility while reviewing how that arrangement worked.

The Tribunal rejected the proposed adjustments. It found that transferring the Claimant to manage the Band B team was considered and later offered when the current postholder became willing to swap, subject to occupational health advice, but the Claimant then decided to retire. It also found there was no existing full-time HR assistance role and that creating such a role would not have been a reasonable adjustment. The reasonable adjustments complaint was dismissed.