Under the revised policy, Working Age people, including certain mixed age couples (MAC) (couples where one member of the couple is over State Pension Age and the other is not) who were protected from the introduction of the mixed age couple’s policy in 2019 ‘protected mixed age couples’, will be required to move to UC.  People over State Pension age (Spa) with a TC award and certain protected MACs will only be required to move to UC in certain circumstances.

These Regulations amended various social security regulations in order to provide for the transfer of people over SPa entitled to WTC and / or CTC to UC or Pension Credit (PC), as appropriate, with Transitional Protection (TP) (via a transitional element in UC or a transitional additional amount in PC) to prevent a reduction in benefit entitlement for eligible claimants at the point of transfer. The Regulations also remove the limit on the number of children that may be included in the calculation of an award of Housing Benefit (HB) for people over SPa.