Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to assess whether the first phase of managed migration to universal credit is being managed effectively for disabled claimants.

We are working closely with stakeholders to discuss the best solution to protect all claimants through the managed migration process. The draft Regulations have been out for consultation with the Social Security Advisory Committee and we look forward to their detailed advice which we will consider alongside all the other stakeholder contributions we receive. The regulations will come before Parliament in the autumn, and during 2019 we will test and refine our processes on a small scale to ensure they are working well before we take on larger volumes from 2020 onwards, and complete the process in 2023.

Our plans already include a process to ensure that, before the existing benefits are stopped, agents will check for evidence of complex needs or vulnerability or disability to safeguard these claimants.