Compensation for universal credit claimants

Around 57,000 universal credit (UC) claimants will receive compensation, with payouts potentially reaching £5,000, after a High Court ruling.

What’s happened?

Many claimants lost important financial support called ‘severe disability premiums’ (SDP) when they were switched from older benefits to UC.

SDP was removed in 2021, and has now been replaced by transitional protection, which tops up your UC so you’re not worse off.

In 2019, two benefit claimants challenged their loss of income in the High Court and won.

This success saw 275 more claimants receive compensation after taking similar action.

Who will get payments?

Three groups of people will receive compensation:

• those who currently get UC and are owed money from 2020 onwards
• current UC claimants who are owed SDP from 2018 to 2020
• those no longer getting UC who are owed the extra amount from 2018 onwards

How will payments be made?

The first group, about 35,000 claimants, will likely be processed first as their cases are simpler.

The Department for Work and Pensions says these payments can be made automatically but it’ll likely take longer to process payments for people in the other two groups due to mixed records.

The department is currently working towards a deadline of August 2025.