Needs to claim UC but still on IRESA - entitled to SDP but it has never been claimed

I have a claimant who is on IRESA (SG) with no SDP in spite of being on daily living PIP.

Claimant has become responsible for a child, and is in a FSUC area. She can’t claim CTC of course, and can’t afford to wait to claim the UC element for the child.

As far as I can see, to qualify for the transitional SDP payment, she’s going to have to claim SDP before the move to UC, thus effectively delaying the UC claim at least briefly to ensure that the loss on IRESA is mitigated.

Reg 63 of the proposed Regs says that the person can get the transitional payment if s/he - 
‘is …entitled to an award of an existing benefit that includes a severe disability premium (“SDP”)’

- now does this mean ‘entitlement’ to SDP or does it require that SDP should actually be in payment??

What I am hoping to do is get an SDP claim sent in as quickly as possible, then for the UC claim to be made straight away after that, to avoid delays on the UC side*.

Am I right in thinking I can establish entitlement to SDP by seeking a decision, and then go for UC, seeking transitional SDP payment as and when the Regs come in, on the basis that SDP entitlement was established before the IRESA claim came to an end?

Am I heading in the correct direction?

The worrying bit is that had this SDP entitlement not been spotted and UC had been claimed without chasing it, I assume that the SDP entitlement and transitional payment would have been lost irrevocably.

[*Interestingly, if the claimant remains on IRESA, gets SDP and doesn’t claim anything but CB for the child, she appears to be only £11.12 a week worse off than on UC]

Did you get this sorted? I just ring ESA up and tell them that the SDP is missing and ask them to sort it out. It’s a massive problem that they seem to be aware of so a telephone call tends to suffice and they will back date it.