Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Employment, 8 January, Official Report, column 174 on Universal Credit: Managed Migration, whether it is her policy that claimants who were previously in receipt of severe disability premium of legacy benefits but lost that premium when they made a claim for universal credit will be identified and have that premium reinstated.

We set out our position on transitional protection and transitional payments for claimants in a Written Statement HCWS1243 on 11 January 2019 and in the revised sets of regulations which were laid on 14 January 2019.

Since 16 January 2019 claimants who are in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium (SDP) or who have been entitled to an award of an existing benefit that included SDP in the previous month, and who have continued to meet the SDP eligibility conditions, have been prevented from moving onto Universal Credit if they experience a change in circumstances. Instead, these claimants will continue to claim legacy benefits until DWP move them onto Universal Credit where transitional protection will be available, thereby safeguarding their existing benefit entitlement.

The draft regulations also make provision so that eligible claimants who had previously been in receipt of Severe Disability Premium but who moved onto Universal Credit before 16 January 2019, following a change in their circumstances, will be considered for a ‘SDP transitional payment’. Eligible claimants will receive an on-going monthly payment and an additional lump-sum payment, where appropriate to cover the period since they moved onto Universal Credit. These regulations will be debated and voted on this year.