Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what transitional protections are in place to ensure that claimants of employment and support allowance retain their severe disability premium when they move on to universal credit.

We will start to move legacy benefit claimants to Universal Credit as part of our Managed Migration process from 2019. At this point, claimants will receive transitional protection if their overall Universal Credit entitlement would be less than under the old system, provided that their circumstances remain the same.

Currently, claimants only move from existing benefits to Universal Credit through natural migration when they experience a change in their circumstances that triggers a new claim to benefit. Their entitlement is then calculated on the rules of their new benefit. This is a long-established principle which we maintain for Universal Credit. In the case of claimants currently in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium, we will continue to reflect on the matter.