Lawyers who successfully advocated for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to establish a compensation scheme for tens of thousands of benefit claimants are now seeking clarification on issues related to the payments.
Earlier this year, the DWP introduced the scheme for disabled individuals who moved from “legacy benefits” like Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to Universal Credit without transitional protections.
These claimants lost their ‘Severe Disability Premium’ (SDP) during the transition due to inadequate income protection by the DWP. Leigh Day lawyers, representing the claimants, are pressing the DWP to reveal their payment calculation methods, pointing out potential errors in some claimants’ payouts.
Ryan Bradshaw, a lawyer at Leigh Day, highlighted cases where the DWP notified claimants that compensation payments might affect their benefit eligibility thresholds, labeling such situations as “scandalous.”
The estimated compensation per person could exceed £5,000, with a total cost of £452 million reported by The Independent. While most of the affected 57,000 individuals have received compensation, approximately 13,000 more complex cases are yet to be resolved by September.
Although efforts are underway to reach eligible claimants for compensation, those who suspect they are affected are encouraged to submit claims for assessment on an individual basis by the DWP.
The DWP spokesperson emphasized the commitment to identify and compensate eligible claimants who transitioned to Universal Credit due to changing circumstances, acknowledging the complexity of the process and ongoing efforts to expedite payments to all eligible claimants.
To qualify for compensation, claimants must have received or been entitled to receive Universal Credit with a transitional SDP, meeting specific conditions before transitioning to Universal Credit. The back payments will be calculated based on the rates applicable during the transition period until the introduction of new income protection regulations in February 2024.
Monthly payment rates will vary depending on the circumstances during the transition period, ensuring claimants receive what they would have been entitled to under the updated rules if they had been in effect earlier.
