Transitional protection ESA to UC where DLA or PIP awarded

A couple of questions here.  I don’t have a particular client in mind, but am looking for info to best advise when sick/disabled people are eligible for UC and to prepare:

Right now, provided they meet the criteria and have the appropriate DLA or PIP award, a claimant can have an SDP and EDP in their ESA.  Under UC a new claimant in the same situation will receive just the LCWRA element on top for the basic amount and receive much less.

Transitional protection will apply to claimants who are migrated over by the DWP onto UC and will continue until the benefit amount for a new claimant catches up.

Or does it?

a)  Is there any occasion when someone previously on DLA, successful when reassessed for PIP loses their right to transitional protection when they are moved from ESA to UC?  Someone has suggested that the transitional protection rules apply only to claimants of DLA and not PIP.  Is it not the ESA that is covered by the TP rather than the disability benefit?

b)  Also, my understanding from the Briefing Note Dec 2012 is that TP will continue as before until the amount claimed is equal to that which a new claimant is entitled to. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181344/ucpbn-transitional-protection.pdf
Is this the latest guidance?  A set period of 12 months has been mentioned to me but I’ve no idea which circumstances that might relate to.

Firstly;  I suspect that any managed migration to Universal Credit is a long way off.  Those will be the only cases where there will be any transitional protection.  So there are no cases yet. 

The protection is intended to ensure that the total relevant benefit income is preserved at that cash level.  When you say “that TP will continue as before until the amount claimed is equal to that which a new claimant is entitled to” , the meaning is that the protected amount stays at the same cash level (with some protection for increase in earnings) until the Universal Credit amount for those circumstances passes the protected amount.  There will be no annual uprating increase etc.

It’s interesting and instructive that we are still working with briefing notes from 2012.

Thanks Gareth.  I realise that this situation may not happen for a good while yet, but people are being moved over onto PIP.  Does this mean that if someone is awarded PIP before migrating over to UC, they may not have TP?  I can’t see a reason for it myself, but someone who had some training recently seemed to think that being on PIP would prevent them having TP and another that TP lasts only 12 months.

Am I right in thinking that it is the ESA that is the relevant benefit re TP as the extra income derives from premiums due through PIP/DLA, and therefore TP would apply and up until the date in the vague future when UC catches up with the protected amount?

Yes - the TP will apply if the claimant’s legacy benefits are more than their UC entitlement. And this would be the case whether the premiums are awarded due to DLA or PIP.

There is no time limit on TP but, because any change of circumstance that increases your UC entitlement just eats into it, it is unlikely to last that long.

Thanks, Daphne.  As the person concerned works for a housing association, I think he might have been confused by the transitional protection on HB and eligible rent when someone in the household dies.  This has cleared it up for me.  Thanks again.