Discrimination in everyday life

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Overview

Sometimes people are offered a worse service because of their mental health condition. This is called discrimination and, if you experience it when you use services or public functions, you may have a legal right to challenge it.

Quick facts

• The Equality Act 2010 is the law that gives you the right to challenge discrimination. This law may protect you from discrimination when you:
  
  • use services or public functions (covered in these pages)
  • are at work, applying for a job, made redundant or dismissed (see our legal pages on discrimination at work)
  • buy, rent or live in property (see our legal pages on discrimination when buying, renting or living in property)
  • are in education
  • join some private clubs and associations.
• To get protection under the Equality Act, you usually need to show that your mental health problem is a disability. 'Disability' has a special legal meaning under the Equality Act. To find out if your mental health problem is considered a disability, see our page on disability.
• 'Services' includes services provided by private companies (such as hotels and restaurants), hospitals and government departments.
• A 'public function' is an act or activity taken by a public authority which is not a service; for example, law enforcement or the collection of taxes.
• Organisations and people providing services or public functions have to make adjustments for you if your disability puts you at a disadvantage compared with others who are not disabled, and it is reasonable for them to do so.
• If a public authority has discriminated against you when providing you services or public functions, you might also be able to complain that they have not followed the public sector equality duty.
• If you think you have experienced disability discrimination, there are several things you can do to make a complaint.

This information was published in February 2018. We will revise it in 2020.

References are available on request. If you would like to reproduce any of this information, see our page on permissions and licensing.

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