Universal Credit: Disability

(asked on 15th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of disabled households will have a (a) higher and (b) lower benefit income than under the previous benefit system after the roll-out of universal credit.


Answered by
Justin Tomlinson Portrait
Justin Tomlinson
This question was answered on 20th May 2019

The Department estimates around 2 million disabled households will be in receipt of Universal Credit, as shown in table 4.4, page 86 of the Office for Budget Responsibility, Welfare Trends Report, here: http://obr.uk/wtr/welfare-trends-report-january-2018/

For those on Universal Credit due to a change in circumstance, it is not possible to calculate gainers or losers. As there has been a change of circumstance, the previous entitlement is not relevant for such a calculation. In order to carry out such an assessment, one would need to calculate individual notional legacy entitlement in tax credits, housing benefit and legacy DWP benefits, and then compare it to the Universal Credit entitlement. There is not the capacity within HMRC, Local Authorities or legacy DWP to run such calculations.

For those who have yet to move over to Universal Credit, the same principle applies. The circumstances that will lead to them moving over are not known, so it is not possible to calculate.

Universal Credit is more generous than the legacy system, with around one million disabled households gaining around £100 per month on average.

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