Asked by: Paul Sweeney (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of natural migration to universal credit on severely disabled people.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Our Regulations will ensure that eligible claimants in receipt of Severe Disability Premium are only moved to Universal Credit as part of a managed migration process, and through that process will see their payments protected. We are spending over £3 billion on Transitional Protections for 1.1 million households, to ensure that no one loses out at the point of transition. We have also made provision for those eligible claimants who have already naturally migrated to Universal Credit to be considered for Severe Disability Premium transitional payments. These will be made as on-going monthly payments and an additional lump-sum to cover the period since they moved to Universal Credit.
Over £2.4 billion in benefits are currently unclaimed and Universal Credit ensures that vulnerable claimants receive the money they are entitled to. More severely disabled people will receive higher payments under Universal Credit, with around 1 million disabled households gaining on average around £100 more per month.
Asked by: Paul Sweeney (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of benefit (a) sanctions and (b) conditionality on disabled people.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The department has not made an assessment of the effect of imposing sanctions and conditionality on disabled claimants.
Asked by: Paul Sweeney (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effect of the introduction of universal credit on disabled people.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Most disabled people are better off under Universal Credit than the legacy system.
More severely disabled people will receive higher payments under Universal Credit, with around 1 million disabled households gaining on average around £100 more per month.
Disabled claimants have the biggest work allowance of any group, and benefit from the unified taper and removal of rules such as ‘permitted work’ that put a cap on how much money disabled people can earn. Universal Credit also, for the first time, helps people with a disability or health condition who are already in work to remain there and progress.
Asked by: Paul Sweeney (Labour (Co-op) - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will extend universal credit transitional protection to people (a) whose eligibility for support has recently changed, (b) living in temporary and supported accommodation and (c) affected by the benefit cap.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Natural migration to Universal Credit occurs when a claimant experiences a change in their circumstances and they are required to make a new claim to Universal Credit. This new award is calculated based on claimants’ new circumstances, which ensures they are paid the correct amount. As such, they are not eligible for transitional protection which is designed to ensure that those moved without a change in circumstances do not lose out financially.
The Universal Credit (Managed Migration) 2018 regulations which have been laid before Parliament ensure that those living in temporary and supported accommodation will have access to transitional protection if they are managed migrated. These claimants will remain in receipt of their existing Housing Benefit while they continue to live in this form of accommodation and, therefore, no support paid for housing will be taken into account when considering if transitional protection should be awarded. This transitional protection is dependent on the Managed Migration regulations receiving Parliamentary approval.
When claimants are migrated to Universal Credit the comparison of total legacy benefit and Universal Credit will be calculated once the benefit cap has been applied to both amounts. The benefit cap rules continue to apply so Universal Credit claimants will not receive above the level of the benefit cap unless they meet one of the exemption criteria. Households who are exempt from the Benefit Cap, including those who earn at least £542 a month, will be unaffected.