change of circumstances

crommy wrote: hi i have just come accross an article saying that severe disability premium is to be abolished on the introduction of universal credit.i am getting more confused as the dwp have sent me a sdp claims form and i am waiting to hear the outcome.is it i can still get sdp until i am placed into universal credit.why are all these benefits so complicated i think the staff at the dwp dont even know the rules.hope anyone can advise thx.wasent the uc credit introduced in 2013?

I am afraid that all of the current Premiums will stop under Universal Credit, some are replaced in part by Allowances, but SDP is not one of them, however, this change only affects claimants who are claiming a benefit under the umbrella of UC, at the moment this is only single adults and only about 3000 of them across the whole of the UK, so at some time in the future (possibly), you will be transferred to UC and will then lose your SDP, but I would not worry about it at the moment as it is still payable.

Gordon

crommy wrote: thx gordon so the longer i can keep off uc the better.you any knowledge of how many months or hopefully years the transferring to uc credit will take

It's a bit difficult to predict, the project is best part of a year behind schedule and from what we know the core computer systems are nowhere close to ready, so there is still a small possibility that it will be cancelled, any mass migration was not intended to start until after the next election and I think it likely that this will not be before 2017.

Gordon

crommy wrote: hi gordon i looking and see that it is said nobody will be worse off when changeing to uc.if this is the case even tho sdp will stop under uc will payments still be made as to not be worse off.hope you can help thx

There will be Transitional Protection for claimants moved to UC from other benefits, however, you need to be aware that claimants receiving any TP will not receive the annual uprating of benefit payments, so will be effectively losing money in the mid to long term.

Gordon