Universal Credit transitional protection

Stella_Artois

Hi, I vaguely understand the U.C transitional protection process. As far as I am aware during the transition,your working family tax credit limit is frozen,you are then topped up to what you were getting before moving to U.C , and eventually when your U.C awared reaches the same level , you are fully moved to U.C. Clear as mud.


Quote " You can receive Universal Credit transitional protection until your Universal Credit award increases to reach the same amount you were receiving from the benefits it replaced, or until your Universal Credit entitlement decreases to nothing, or until you have a significant change of circumstance."


I realise that U.C is affected by savings ( £6,000 - £16,000) so my question is, does a persons savings affect your award while under transitional protection.
Many thanks in advance

[Deleted User]

Stella_Artois wrote: »

Hi, I vaguely understand the U.C transitional protection process. As far as I am aware during the transition,your working family tax credit limit is frozen,you are then topped up to what you were getting before moving to U.C , and eventually when your U.C awared reaches the same level , you are fully moved to U.C. Clear as mud.


Quote " You can receive Universal Credit transitional protection until your Universal Credit award increases to reach the same amount you were receiving from the benefits it replaced, or until your Universal Credit entitlement decreases to nothing, or until you have a significant change of circumstance."


I realise that U.C is affected by savings ( £6,000 - £16,000) so my question is, does a persons savings affect your award while under transitional protection.
Many thanks in advance

In red above. If you don't qualify for UC due to savings or anything else the protection ends.

Stella_Artois

_shel wrote: »

In red above. If you don't qualify for UC due to savings or anything else the protection ends.

Thanks for the reply.
From the website https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Universal-Credit-transitional-protection/How-long-will-I-get-Universal-Credit-transitional#guide-content
, it quotes
Your Universal Credit entitlement decreases

If you have a decrease in your Universal Credit entitlement, for example because of an increase in your earnings, your transitional protection amount will not be reduced straight away. This is to make sure that work incentives are protected.
Your transitional amount won't be reduced until your Universal Credit entitlement falls to £0. Even then you won't lose all your transitional protection amount at once, it will be removed at the set taper rate, currently 65%. This means you will lose 65p of your transitional protection amount for every £1 you earn.

It does not mention anything about savings.
Thank you

[Deleted User]

You still have to qualify for UC to get transitional protection. If your savings mean you dont qualify you get no protection.

Stella_Artois

_shel wrote: »

You still have to qualify for UC to get transitional protection. If your savings mean you dont qualify you get no protection.

I see, thank you

mkcj

http://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/tax-credits-and-benefits/universal-credit




Towards the end of this article:-




"There are special rules for people who are moved across from tax credits to UC by HMRC/DWP which may mean you can still claim even if you have savings of more than £16,000."

[Deleted User]

The legislation states otherwise http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2013/9780111531549/contents

Icequeen99

_shel wrote: »

The legislation states otherwise http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2013/9780111531549/contents

Those are the current regulations. I can't find the link right now, but DWP gave a previous commitment that legacy benefit claimants with capital would be given transitional protection. However, as there won't be any managed migration until 2018 at the earliest, none of the transitional protection regs for those people are in place.

The regs you link to are the normal entitlement regs for UC, which do have a capital requirement.

However, once on UC, some changes of circumstances will end transitional protection immediately. If you later get capital of over £16k while on UC, it will end your UC claim so you will lose the transitional protection immediately. This is based only on the DWP briefing paper from 2012 - there are no regs on any of this yet so it is a wait and see!


IQ

Stella_Artois

mkcj wrote: »

http://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/tax-credits-and-benefits/universal-credit




Towards the end of this article:-




"There are special rules for people who are moved across from tax credits to UC by HMRC/DWP which may mean you can still claim even if you have savings of more than £16,000."

Interesting, thank you very much

Icequeen99 wrote: »

Those are the current regulations. I can't find the link right now, but DWP gave a previous commitment that legacy benefit claimants with capital would be given transitional protection. However, as there won't be any managed migration until 2018 at the earliest, none of the transitional protection regs for those people are in place.

The regs you link to are the normal entitlement regs for UC, which do have a capital requirement.

However, once on UC, some changes of circumstances will end transitional protection immediately. If you later get capital of over £16k while on UC, it will end your UC claim so you will lose the transitional protection immediately. This is based only on the DWP briefing paper from 2012 - there are no regs on any of this yet so it is a wait and see!


IQ

Thank you very much, much appreciated

Icequeen99

Here is the previous briefing on Capital from DWP that was produced as the Bill was passing through: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/ucpbn-3-capital.pdf

There is a paragraph that confirms TP for tax credit claimants with 16k of capital.

IQ

Stella_Artois

Icequeen99 wrote: »

There is a paragraph that confirms TP for tax credit claimants with 16k of capital.

IQ

Yes, I can see that.
I thank you very much for finding that. I suppose nothing is set in concrete and is open to change. Nontheless, it is a very interesting find.
Many thanks