Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people in the Employment and Support Allowance Support Group will be classed as being a new claimant when they migrate onto Universal Credit for the purposes of the Universal Credit Bill.

We are rebalancing Universal Credit to fix a system which encourages people to claim health benefits and shuts the out of employment support. It’s a targeted reform that protects those with the most serious, long-term conditions and existing claimants, while providing work, health and skills support to everyone who is affected by changes to LCWRA.

I can confirm that customers who move to Universal Credit from Employment & Support Allowance (Income-Related), with no gap between those awards, will not be treated as a new customer and will retain the higher rate of the LCWRA addition.