To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the planned timescale is for the transitional protection period for universal credit.
Answered on
19 September 2018
Transitional Protection will not be awarded for a fixed period, but will remain in place until the underlying Universal Credit entitlement increases, which will bring claimants’ entitlement into line with that of those making new claims. Transitional Protection will end, however, if the claimant has a significant change of circumstance.
Subject to Parliament approving the necessary legislation, which we have announced will be brought forward in the autumn, we will be starting managed migration of existing benefit claimants to Universal Credit in 2019 and plan to complete this process in 2023. It is estimated this legislation will bring in £2.6 billion of transitional protection by 2023 (OBR Welfare Trends report January 2018) boosting the incomes of around 1 million Universal Credit households. The regulations also include additional transitional protection arrangements for all approximately 500,000 claimants eligible for a Severe Disability Premium.