The Severe Disability Premium
The SDP is not a separate benefit. It’s an extra bit of Income Support, Income-related ESA or Income-based JSA (and also part of Housing Benefit).
If you are a single person you qualify for £67.30 per week if:
- You get PIP Daily Living or DLA Care Component because you have got care needs.
- No-one gets paid Carer’s Allowance or UC Carer Element for looking after you.
- You have no other adults (called non-dependants) living with you.
For a couple:
- You and your partner must both get PIP Daily Living or DLA Care Component because you have got care needs.
- You must have no non-dependants living with you.
- if someone gets Carer’s Allowance or UC Carer Element for looking after one of you, you get a single SDP of £67.30 per week
- If nobody gets Carer’s Allowance or UC Carer Element for looking after either of you, you get a high rate SDP of £134.60 per week
In these rules a non-dependant means someone who lives with you on a non-commercial basis.
The most common sort of non-dependant is a grown-up child.
Non-dependants are ignored if they also get DLA or PIP.
Joint occupiers and joint tenants, such as house sharers, don’t count as non-dependants.
Natural Migration to Universal Credit
Universal Credit is replacing Income Support, income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Housing Benefit for people under pension age. DWP calls these the legacy benefits.
If you are getting legacy benefits and something changes in a way that means you need to make a new claim for a means-tested benefit you must claim Universal Credit. Your legacy benefit claims will all be closed and incorporated in the new UC claim.
The DWP calls this natural migration.
A common cause of natural migration is moving home, and needing to make a new claim for help with rent.
Because Housing Benefit is closed for new claims, this leads to natural migration.
Note though that if you already have a Housing Benefit claim and you move directly to a new home in the same council’s area, you can transfer the old claim to the new property. And because you are not making a new claim, you don’t have to naturally migrate to UC.
After naturally migrating to UC, some people, mostly workers, get more from Universal Credit than they got from the legacy benefits.
But for many people, Universal Credit is less than they got from the old benefits.
The Transitional SDP Element is an extra allowance that provides some temporary protection from this benefit cut.
The Transitional SDP Element
If you claim Universal Credit within one month of getting Income Support, Income-related ESA or Income-based JSA that included a Severe Disability Premium, your new Universal Credit award will include a Transitional SDP Element – so long as you continue to meet the conditions for the SDP up to the first day of the UC award.
The Transitional SDP Element will not make up for the full loss of ESA.
If you are single, in the first assessment period you will get:
- £120 if your award also includes a LCWRA element
- £285 if your award does not include a LCWRA element
If you are a member of a couple, in the first assessment period, you get
- £405 if your legacy benefit included the high rate SDP of £133.90 per week
- £120 if your legacy benefit included a single SDP of £66.95; and you now get a LCWRA element in your new UC award.
- £285 if your legacy benefit included a single SDP of £66.95; and you do not get a LCWRA element in your new UC award.
The Transitional SDP Element is not a permanent allowance it will be reduced as your standard rate of Universal Credit increases.
You may lose your Transitional SDP Element if your UC award ends, even temporarily, or if there is a change in your circumstances.
You do not get a Transitional SDP Element if your claim for UC comes about because you are moving in as a partner with someone who is already on UC.
How the Transitional SDP Element Gets Reduced – The Erosion Rules
From your second assessment period onwards your TSDPE will be reduced by any new elements included in your Universal Credit award so for example:
- If you are getting a TSDP element when the standard rates of UC increase, the TSDP will be reduced by the same amount
- If your Housing Costs Element increases when your rent goes up, the TSDP Element will be reduced by the same amount
- If you have a new child, the TSDP Element will be reduced by the amount of any new Child Element
- If you begin to care for someone, the TSDP Element will be reduced by the amount of the Carer Element
Many of these increases would wipe out your TSDP completely.
The only new element that does not get knocked off your TSDP element is an increase in or a new award of the UC Childcare Costs Element.
When you Lose the Transitional SDP Element
Your TSDP element stops if:
- You move in with your partner or you split up with your partner. Click here to find out what the benefits system means by partner.
- You earned more than £345.37 (single claimants) or £552.06 (couples) in your first assessment period and now your earnings have dropped below this level for three consecutive months. [I have absolutely no idea what this rule is about – MB]
- Your UC ends for any reason and you then reclaim – unless the reason you lost your UC was because your earnings were too high and now you have restarted your claim because your earnings have dropped; and you do this within three months of the end of the assessment period in which you old claim ended.
Some Examples of Quirky Situations to Watch out For
Albert gets PIP Daily Living Component of 60.00pw and old-style contribution-based ESA of £114.10
He didn’t realise that he could also have a top-up of old-style, income-related ESA to bring him up to his needs-level (applicable amount) of £198.60
This needs level includes the Severe Disabilty Premium
By sorting out this top-up now, Albert can get the extra money, including a backpayment, and he will qualify for a TSDPE if he naturally migrates to Universal Credit.
Albert is likely to be told that he can’t make a new claim for iESA, but because he already gets cESA this won’t count as a new claim.
Gillian lost her ESA Severe Disability Premium when her brother moved in with her, because he counted as a non-dependant.
Now they are moving house to a new council area and because she will need to claim help with her half of the new rent, she will naturally migrate to Universal Credit.
To make the best of this situation they have staggered the move.
First her brother has moved to the new home.
Gilllian is now living alone in the old property and has re-qualified for her Severe Disability Premium
She’s going to claim UC just before she moves to the new home in a couple of weeks.
Because she qualifies for the SDP right up to the first day of the Universal Credit claim, she will get the TSDP Element in the UC award.
Bargitta didn’t get the SDP because she was living with her mother.
Now she has moved alone into a new home she qualifies for the SDP.
She’s going to leave it until she has had one ESA payday in her new home, before she claims Universal Credit, so she can establish her entitlement to the SDP for that benefit-week.
That way she will qualify for the TSDP Element in her new Universal Credit award.
Perhaps the delay is legally unnecessary, but it makes sense to have a clear period of SDP entitlement before claiming UC
Probably there will be lots of messing about to get this sorted because ESA won’t actually be able to deal with the change-of-circumstances to include the SDP in Bargitta’s award, before she moves onto UC.
Nonetheless it will eventually be sort-out-able.
Ernesto is about to be discharged from hospital. After four weeks in hospital his PIP Daily Living Component was suspended.
His situation is essentially the same as Bargitta’s, except that PIP will have to be reinstated on leaving hospital, to cause entitlement to the SDP, to lead to the TSDP amount in the new Universal Credit claim.
Doug was claiming iESA for himself and his partner Kat.
Doug gets PIP Daily Living and Kat gets Carer’s Allowance for looking after him.
When Kat got an award of PIP Daily Living they qualified for a single Severe Disability Premium in the iESA claim.
Kat stopped the Carer’s Allowance claim and so they qualified for the high rate (double) SDP of £134.60pw.
This means that they will qualify for the £405 TSDP Element if they naturally migrate to Universal Credit.
The Law
Benefits nerds like me, may want to see the legal rules for this system. Click here to download an annotated word document with the relevant regulations.
Or if you want to talk this over, call me 07949 525 371