ESA transitional protection removed?

I have a client who was migrated from IB -> ESA.

Client awarded ESA and given £15 transitional protection in his benefit, as the amount of IB he was receiving was higher than his new ESA amount.

He was in receipt of MRC DLA so i advised a carers allowance, and informed client that the carers premium of £32.60 would be added to their applicable couple amount, leaving them £65 per fortnight better off.

Carers Allowance granted now and benefit amount altered, however in the new calculation his ESA has dropped down and he appears to have lost his £15.00 transitional protection amount.

Is that allowed??

They are only half as much better off as they thought as £30 per fortnight has gone from his ESA.

Any help greatly appreciated, as always.

If I’ve read it correctly, and understood the rules correctly, I think he should be allowed to retain the transitional allowance of £15, as this is classed as a contributory allowance, because it is a TA paid to make up for the difference between the IB he was getting and the ordinary entitlement of contributory ESA. 

Where an ESA(Cont) claimant later becomes entitled to ESA(IR), this is not a relevant increase, because prescribed amounts for ESA(Cont) do not include amounts for partners or premiums.  (para 45801, DMG, ch. 45). In other words a change to the (amount of) entitlement to income-related ESA should not affect the TA paid for the ESA (Cont) as the latter is a contributory allowance.

Here is a link to the relevant guidance:  http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dmgch45.pdf

D’oh! You can tell that this question was posted on a Monday morning, before i managed to remove the weekend cobwebs from my brain.

I had a think and realised it makes no difference wether the transitional protection was kept or not. They have an income related ESA top up, which would be reduced by the amount of any protection anyway, so in this case it makes no difference.

Thanks though, as Domino’s response will help folk who don’t get top ups.

Reg 18 of the Conversion Regs is simply designed to reduce the TA by the increases of the rates, components and premiums for both types of ESA and the TA can never be reduced to less than zero.  In other words, the annual upratings.