Recognised impairment

Case 9: The facts

Mr Wilson suffered from anxiety and depression, which got worse after he was ill with flu. He claimed that his condition amounted to a disability but a tribunal concluded it did not. He appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).

The ruling

For a medical impairment to amount to a disability, it must be a clinically well-recognised illness. A diagnosis of "clinical depression" by itself is not enough.

A good (but not the only) way of determining whether a condition is well-recognised is by referring to the World Health Organisation (WHO) classification of diseases, which defines and gives symptoms of various kinds of anxiety and depressive illness.

The EAT held that Wilson's condition was not a disability. It is for the claimant to prove that they have a disability - and although Wilson provided written evidence from his GP confirming that he suffered from anxiety and depression, and this evidence did refer to the WHO list, it did not define the exact nature of his condition.

Wilson v Southern Counties Fuels UKEAT/0032/04