Moving to Universal Credit from other benefits

  1. Overview
  2. Who can claim Universal Credit
  3. Better or worse off?
  4. Changes in your circumstances (natural migration)
  1. Choosing to change to Universal Credit (natural migration)
  2. Managed migration
  3. Transitional protection
  4. What else you need to know

7. Transitional protection

Transitional protection is an additional amount of money, paid with Universal Credit to prevent you from being worse off than you were on legacy benefits. However, please note that:

  • Not everyone will qualify
  • It may not fully cover everything you were getting on legacy benefits
  • It is only temporary and the value of it will be lost over time, due to benefit "increases" and changes of circumstance

Natural migration

You will only qualify for transitional protection if you or your partner were receiving a Severe Disability Premium (extra money because you are severely disabled) included in your legacy benefit claim for Income Support​, income-related Employment & Support Allowance or income-based Jobseekers Allowance, during the month before your Universal Credit entitlement starts.

This extra amount is called a transitional (SDP) element and, depending on your circumstances at the point when you claim Universal Credit, it is paid at a flat rate of £132.12, £313.79 or £445.91 per month.

Managed migration

Transitional protection is calculated differently under managed migration and is usually more generous than under natural migration. Before you are transferred to Universal Credit, the DWP add up the total amount you receive from all your legacy benefits (including Housing Benefit) and compare this to the total you will receive from Universal Credit.

If the amount you receive from Universal Credit is less than your legacy benefits total amount, you will be paid an additional amount – called a transitional element – which should mean you are no worse off in cash terms, but this will only apply at the point of transfer.

Change of circumstances after migration

For both types of migration, after your first monthly Universal Credit assessment period, any increase in your Universal Credit standard allowance or other elements (except for the childcare element) is cut from your transitional element. Over time, this can reduce your transitional element to nil. Your transitional element will also stop completely if you change from being a single person to one of a couple, or vice versa. Once you lose a transitional element, you cannot get it back.

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