The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) restarted the ‘managed migration’ process of moving up to 2.6 million people currently claiming legacy benefits over to Universal Credit in May. The 'discovery phase' of the managed migration process is currently only underway in England and no indication of when it will start in Scotland has been given yet, but all claimants will be moved by the end of 2024.
Older-style benefits include Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits, Income-Based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Income Support and Housing Benefit. The DWP will start writing to legacy benefits claimants to let them know that they will be moving across to Universal Credit and explain how the process will work.
The letters are called ‘Migration Notices’ and give claimants three months to make their Universal Credit claim. However, many of these claimants may not be aware that a change in their circumstances could actually trigger the move to Universal Credit, known as ‘natural migration’.
