Moving home and transitional protection

jc_3242

Hi,

I have a friend that is soon moving home from Northern Ireland to England.

They are still on the old style legacy benefits. 

They receive income related ESA and child tax credits. When they move, they will obviously be automatically switched to make a claim for Universal Credit. Their question is, would they be eligible for transitional protection, thus keeping their payments the same on UC as they are on the old style legacy benefits?

Thanks for the help and advice. 

jc_3242

Also they receive severe disability premium. 

poppy123456

They will not be automatically switched to UC because no one is. They will only need to claim UC if they need to claim for help with any rent. If they don't then they will remain on their exisiting benefits.

If they need to claim for help with the rent then when they move they will need to claim UC. This will then end any Income Related ESA they are claiming after 2 weeks.

Tax credits will end once they submit their UC claim.

If they will continue to live alone or treated as living alone then their UC will include the SDP Transitional Protection. If they are in the Support Group for ESA then they'll be entitled to the LCWRA element from the start of their claim. However, unfortunately, they are likely to be worse off once they claim UC because the SDP TP is less than what the SDP is. It will also erode over time, which means if other elements increase the TP decreases until such a time it erodes completely.

You are only guaranteed to not be worse off when claiming UC through managed migration.