Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference disabled people migrating to Universal Credit from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), for what reason income that was disregarded for the purposes of ESA is considered to be income for the purposes of Universal Credit.

Universal Credit was not designed to replicate previous legacy benefits. Therefore, customers migrating to Universal Credit may be subject to different rules, including different treatment of income and how it is disregarded in assessing their benefit entitlement.

Those moving from Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA(IR)) through the managed migration process will be assessed for Transitional Protection. Where benefit entitlement on claiming Universal Credit is lower than previous entitlement to ESA(IR), a Transitional Protection element will be applied. This element is determined prior to the application of any deductions. This ensures customers do not experience a reduction in their overall entitlement at the point of migration. However, the calculation does not replicate all legacy benefit rules, so previous disregards such as the permitted earnings disregard in ESA(IR), will not be applied on claiming Universal Credit.

Instead, customers who have limited capability for work qualify for a work allowance – the amount they can earn before the UC award starts to be reduced. The current monthly work allowances are:

• £411 per month for those receiving support for housing costs; and
• £684 per month for those not receiving support for housing costs.

Beyond the work allowance, we apply a single taper rate of 55% to net earnings. This means that for every £1 earned, customers keep 45p, helping them see a clear financial benefit from working.