Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of support for universal credit claimants who had previously been in receipt of enhanced disability payments.

When designing Universal Credit the Government chose to concentrate financial support on the most severely disabled people to create a simpler and more streamlined system.

The Universal Credit rate for the most severely disabled people, the limited capability for work and work- related activity addition, is more than double the equivalent rate for the Employment and Support Allowance support group. This means claimants who were previously in the Employment and Support Allowance support group and only receiving the enhanced disability premium, are better off on Universal Credit.

Additional support is available through the National Disability Strategy and the Government’s Health and Disability green paper aims to continue to improve the support available.