The Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Regulations 2022

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/1230) (“the Transitional Provisions Regulations”) and the Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/1152).

Regulation 1 provides for citation, commencement, extent and interpretation.

Regulation 2 revokes regulation 4 of the Transitional Provisions Regulations (Secretary of State discretion to determine claims for universal credit may not be made). This removes the discretion of the Secretary of State to exclude temporarily universal credit claims in any area or in any category of case if considered necessary to safeguard the efficient administration of universal credit. This provision is no longer needed owing to progress with the rollout of universal credit.

Regulation 3 revokes regulation 6 of the Transitional Provisions Regulations (exclusion of claims for certain existing benefits), which excludes universal credit claimants from claiming income support, housing benefit or tax credits. Regulation 6 is no longer needed and was largely superseded by orders made under section 150(3) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (c. 5).

Regulation 4 inserts regulation 6A into the Transitional Provisions Regulations. The new regulation replaces both regulation 6 and the provisions in the orders under section 150 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 referred to above. Accordingly, there is now one provision that specifies cases where a person may still make a claim for housing benefit, income support or a tax credit.

Regulation 5 amends regulations 7, 8, 12 and 12A of the Transitional Provisions Regulations. The effect of these omissions is that there is no longer a requirement for the Secretary of State to be satisfied that the claimant or claimants meet the basic conditions specified in section 4(1)(a) to (d) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (other than any of those conditions which the claimant is not required to meet by virtue of regulations under section 4(2) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012) when a universal credit claim is made.

Regulation 6 revokes regulation 47 of the Transitional Provisions Regulations. This has the effect of aligning the termination of any existing benefits for notified persons who claim as a different benefit unit with the termination of existing benefits upon natural migration following a change in couple status. Paragraph (2) provides that if a notified person claims universal credit as a different benefit unit they will not qualify for a transitional element.

Regulation 7 provides that when calculating the adjustment of a transitional element under regulation 55 of the Transitional Provisions Regulations, if the LCWRA element replaces the LCW element, the “relevant increase” is the difference between the two amounts.

Regulation 8 provides for the protection for full time students in regulation 60 of the Transitional Provisions Regulations to cease to apply in the same way as any of the other forms of transitional protection. In addition, that protection for full-time students will only apply to a subsequent award in the same circumstances as other forms of transitional protection can apply to a subsequent award.

Regulation 9 abolishes discretionary hardship payments.

Regulation 10 removes the limit on the number of awards of universal credit made to persons to whom a migration notice has been issued. This was previously limited to 10,000 awards and is now unlimited.

Regulation 11 and the Schedule contains amendments consequential on these Regulations.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, public or voluntary sectors is foreseen.