The legality of the scheme was indirectly challenged in the case Caitlin Reilly and Jamieson Wilson v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
During the period of the scheme which had been ruled unlawful, perhaps 300,000 people had had benefits of an average of around £530-70 withheld,[3] totalling around £130m which the DWP was potentially obliged to repay if Reilly and Wilson won their case in the Supreme Court.
[8] The law firm acting for Reilly and Wilson, Public Interest Lawyers, reportedly lodged submissions to the supreme court, arguing that 'the actions of the secretary of state … represent a clear violation of article 6 of the European convention on human rights and the rule of law, as an interference in the judicial process by the legislature'.
A freedom of information request submitted around March 2012 resulted in a first-tier tribunal ruling in May 2013 that the DWP must reveal these names.
[11] The DWP spent four years attempting to block the release of the names of "placement providers": three successive appeals following as many court rulings ordering they be made public, culminated in July 2016 with the Court of Appeal ruling against the DWP's attempts to keep them a secret, the lists revealing the names of 534 "placement provider" organisations.