The statutory definition of disability requires a substantial long term adverse effect on normal day to day activities.
The EAT in Igweike v TSB Bank Plc held that tribunals must assess the degree or extent of adverse effect on the individual's own ability to carry out a particular activity and it is not necessary to show that the individual's ability has reduced below the normal range of abilities of other workers. However, the degree of variation in the abilities of other workers may assist in assessing whether the degree or extent of difference in the individual's ability is substantial.
In this case, the tribunal had correctly found that the claimant was suffering from the ordinary symptoms of grief at his father's death and that this had not developed into a more profound 'impairment'; even if it had, the tribunal had been entitled to conclude on the facts that the impact of his grief on his performance at work was not substantial.
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