Announced today, changes that will affect those with an SDP (Severe Disability Premium) in payment, those who had an SDP in payment who are now on UC. and those with children born before April ‘17;
“ The first is a negative Statutory Instrument to provide for the Severe Disability Premium Gateway. This prevents legacy claimants who are in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium from moving naturally to Universal Credit and allows them to continue to claim legacy benefits until they are moved over as part of the managed migration process. We committed to bringing this important extra protection into force on 16 January and this provision ensures that we will meet that commitment.
A second affirmative Statutory Instrument will contain the remaining regulations as laid on 5th November 2018. These deliver our commitment to provide the vital transitional protection for claimants who are moved by the Department, which is worth over £3 billion for claimants over 10 years. These also provide for transitional payments to those claimants who were previously in receipt of Severe Disability Premium and have moved to UC before the gateway came into force. “
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“ The current legislation provides that, from 1 February new claims to Universal Credit will support a maximum of two children, regardless of the date of birth of the children.
The Department has looked again carefully at this issue with particular focus on the families making a new claim whose children were all born prior to the implementation of the policy. We have concluded that including these families would not be right and therefore they will be entitled to support for any children born before 6 April 2017, the date that the policy was introduced. I am bringing forward the necessary legislation to enable this change. “