Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral evidence taken by the Work and Pensions Select Committee on 27 February 2019, HC 1884, Question 2, what estimate she has made of the number of universal credit claimants who have undergone natural migration who are financially (a) better off, (b) worse off and (c) the same relative to legacy benefits.

Currently people are only moving to Universal Credit from existing benefits because they have had a significant change in their circumstances which would previously have led them to make a new claim to a different existing benefit. It has always been the case that in such circumstances these new claims would be assessed based upon their new circumstances and under the rules of the new benefit with no recourse to any previous levels of entitlement.

Once fully rolled out, Universal Credit is forecast to be £2 billion per year more generous than the legacy system it replaces.

We have committed to spending over £3 billion over 10 years on transitional protection for 1.1 million households. This will ensure claimants who the Department moves to Universal Credit from legacy benefits will have their existing benefit entitlement safeguarded at the point of transition.