Couples where one is aged below the qualifying age for Pension Credit will have to claim UC until the younger person reaches that age.

Support for people with disabilities in UC is given subject to tests of work capability that follow those in Employment and Support Allowance.

I’ve been trying to understand how that would map onto cases where the older person was disabled but it would clearly be inappropriate to assess their capability for work. The draft regulations spell this out.

The Universal Credit Regulations 2012

SCHEDULE 7
Circumstances in which a claimant is to be treated as having limited capability for work
…

6. The claimant has reached the qualifying age for state pension credit and is entitled to a disability living allowance [at the higher rate] or the mobility component of personal independence payment [at the enhanced rate].

What the rules say is that older people will qualify if they are receiving DLA or its successor PIP. These are benefits which are claimed only by those below Pension Credit age but which can continue to be received as people pass the age.

What about people who become disabled after that age?

They can claim Attendance Allowance, which helps with care needs but not the mobility needs which are also helped by DLA and PIP. They won’t qualify for the extra payments in UC.

Some people will find themselves on UC as ‘mixed age couples’ for a long time (Rupert Murdoch is 80, his wife Wendi is 43; they couldn’t claim Pension Credit until 2035).

People who become disabled after Pension Credit age, or who don’t claim for existing disabilities before then, will find themselves serious losers (the long term aim is for the addition for severely disabled people to be about £77 a week).

Adding Attendance Allowance as a qualifying condition would not be costly and I hope that the SSAC, and those commenting to them, will make this point.