The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) restarted the ‘managed migration’ process of moving legacy benefit claimants over to Universal Credit in May, with the aim of completing the transfer for 2.6 million people over the next two years. Only 500 people in Medway and Bolton are initially being moved to Universal Credit as part of the ‘Discovery Phase’ before the number of case transfers increases.
The move for all legacy benefit claimants is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024. People on older-style benefits include those on Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Working Tax Credits, Child Tax Credits, Income-Based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Housing Benefit and Income Support.
The risk for many people is that once a claim for Universal Credit is started it cannot be reversed, and estimations from the DWP calculate that some 900,000 legacy benefit claimants will receive less money when they move - although, it’s worth noting that around 600,000 will receive transitional protection to safeguard their level of payment through the managed migration process.
