Transitional protection

mrsb1974

good evening

I’m just wondering of anyone has had this experience and can offer any insight

We migrated from child tax credits / income support back in September 2024

My son was on dla at the time just turned 16 and in the process of his pip application . We found out end of October his claim was unsuccessful and we ask for mandatory reconsideration followed by appeal we told universal credit straight away and they removed the disabled child element

Fast forward to February this year 2026 we received a letter saying they had overpaid us £2200 due to too much transitional protection being paid as I wasn’t receiving carers allowance for my son anymore .
on February 14 th this year we won the tribunal for him and his pip was allowed.

We contacted them in the hope the debt would be cancelled and we would be paid back any back pay for his disabled child element .

They paid us some money and told us the debt would be cancelled

They also took money out of our back pay for housing saying someone in our household

Should be contributing towards the rent that was backdated to may 2025.

My eldest son living with us didn’t get his pip renewed in February this year we have 2 other sons on pip ( all have autism) but we know they shouldn’t have paid rent from may last year only from February. We have been asking them for 2 and a half months now and we are no further forward .

The debt still hasn’t been cancelled and they are taking money from our transitional protection .

Reading online I can’t find any information for transitional protection to be reduced other than someone separating from each other or major changes of circumstances. But I want to be clear on this as I’m considering putting in a complaint

I understand it reduces if money goes up for one of the elements eg rent / standard allowance but not for carers allowance stopping

Many thanks in advance for any help or advice anyone can offer

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

Were you getting the Carers Premium with your Income Support?

If so, that is the reason you got too much Transitional Protection when migrating to UC. You needed Carers Allowance at the point of migration in order to be entitled to that.

Your son losing PIP meant that you weren't entitled to the Carers Premium on the date of changeover to UC. The TP was calculated as if you were entitled to it.

If that is the correct sequence of events then I'm afraid UC are correct in that you were getting too much TP from the start.

However, if your son's PIP has since been backdated to cover the date of migration between IS & UC then that's where it gets more complicated. Can you confirm that your sons PIP award start date is before your UC migration start date?

mrsb1974

my son had been on dla since he was 3 there were no gaps in his awarded between dla and pip .
they only changed the statements from the date his pip claim was disallowed . Not from our migration date and id been claiming carers allowance for him for years

Thanks for replying and trying to help I’m at my wits end with it all .

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1130407#Comment_1130407

Ok, thanks for confirming. In that case the Transitional Protection should have been correct at the point of migrating.

Transitional Protection gets eroded by an increase in UC Element rates. But it doesn't get removed if you lose an Element.

It's also nothing to do with Carers Allowance directly as that wasn't included in the Transitional Protection calculation.

At the moment I can't see any reason for your Transitional Protection to have been too high. Do you have a copy or screenshot of the exact wording that says this is a TP overpayment?

mrsb1974

Dear Michael

You were overpaid £2274.32 for the period 27 October 2024 to 26 January 2026. This is because you were no longer in receipt of the Disabled Child Element and Carers Allowance ended for Lisa. This has affected how much Transitinal Protection you were entitlted to.

You do not need to do anything if you are claiming Universal

Our claim started end of august 2024 .
even if they were right surely when it got reinstated at tribunal we would be entitled to it being cancelled . Thanks again for your help

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1130429#Comment_1130429

Ok, I think the Transitional Protection wording is incorrect there.

The overpayment is roughly £150 a month, which is about the amount of low rate Disabled Child Element at the time.

As we know, you weren't entitled to the DC Element while your son wasn't in receipt of PIP. That part is correct for that time.

However, once PIP was awarded and backdated, you were entitled to the DC element again. You should have received full backpay for the DC at that point - as you hadn't been overpaid after all.

Personally I think the situation has been over-complicated by adding the wording about Transitional Protection and Carers Allowance. I don't think that's the issue there. Just the Disabled Child Element. And I agree with you, that should have been backdated and backpaid.

From the first post, it looks like there is a secondary issue here, which is the one regarding a non-dependent deduction made for another of your adult children living at home. That change in circumstances will erode the Transitional Protection by around £96 a month. If that has also since been reversed then they should increase your Transitional Protection again to make up for it.

mrsb1974

we told them immediately and they took away the disabled child element from December 2024 so we didn’t receive it anyway . It all very complicated but we believed the debt should be cancelled and we were entitled to back pay for the period between December 2024 and march 2026 when we received his pip award notice . They adjustments they made in April they put the transitional protection back to the original amount but they didn’t add the disabled child element for any of these months . From April this year they added his element but took it out of our transitional protection as though we’d received a new element which is wrong we were entitled to it the whole time . We got a back payment but it wasn’t for the full amount and there was not letter of explanation how it was worked out just the statement adjustment . Our case worker did the adjustment. We have been trying to sort it out with his but seems he’s given up and sent it to a decision maker . We were told they had till 26th may to respond that came and went and now they are not answering any journal messages .
I rang debt management and they told me they had been told the debt still stands .
I’m going to get help from citizens advice and put in a complaint but I wanted to make sure what I was saying was correct as we believe it to be

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1130441#Comment_1130441

You're right about it being complicated.

Unless they can provide an exact calculation for the overpayment I'm not sure I can help with that part.

I do agree that they should not have taken the DCE out of your Transitional Protection though. So it sounds like you are on the right track with that.

mrsb1974

thank you . I’m awaiting citizens advice to contact me . Hopefully they will have experience of this . I can’t seem to find any information anywhere online and the staff at universal credit don’t even seem to know . All I know is that we are right that they shouldn’t have taken housing deductions and backdated it to last may . Only from February this year . I just assume that if you had something taken because your child’s pip claim was disallowed and then it was overturned at tribunal then any adjustments made would also be cancelled and changed back to how it was . It was bad enough having 16 months fighting the system to get something back he was entitled to without having to deal with all this now