The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) restarted the ‘managed migration’ process of moving up to 2.6 million legacy benefit claimants over to Universal Credit on May 9.
Only 500 people are being moved initially - 250 claimants in Bolton and Medway - however, this is expected to increase over the coming months in order for the DWP to achieve its completion deadline by the end of 2024.
However, SNP MP Alison Thewlis and Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft, have both tried to ascertain a more drilled-down timeframe of the planned managed migration areas to Universal Credit across Scotland and the rest of the UK, but without success.
In two separate, but similar responses, DWP Minister, David Rutley advised that “there are no managed migration areas, we are conducting discovery work in a number of locations with controlled volumes in those locations.”
Ms Thewliss asked the DWP what the timeframe is for managed migration of Universal Credit in Scotland and when it plans to notify people in Universal Credit managed migration areas.
The DWP has previously stated that ‘Migration Notices’ will be sent out with a three-month deadline for the legacy benefit claimant to make a new application for Universal Credit.
In separate written responses, Mr Rutley replied: “The Department is currently focused on the discovery phase of managed migration starting with 250 claimants in Bolton and Medway respectively.
“We are committed to ensuring the final phase of Universal Credit is rolled out safely and is responsibly delivered by the end of 2024 in Scotland and the rest of Great Britain.”
In regards to notifying legacy benefit claimants about the move to Universal Credit, he said: “We started to issue migration notices in these two locations [Bolton and Medway] from 9 May 2022 and will consider the timeframe for other locations in due course.
“There are no managed migration areas, we are conducting discovery work in a number of locations with controlled volumes in those locations.”
Ms Foxcroft asked the DWP what the planned timetable is for the completion of the discovery phase of managed migration to Universal Credit.
In another written response, Mr Rutley said: “The Department is currently focusing on the discovery phase of managed migration, beginning with 250 claimants respectively in both Bolton and Medway.
“We aim to complete the managed migration by the end of 2024. We will only scale once it is safe to do so and we are confident in the process.”
Ms Foxcroft also asked what steps the DWP is taking to ensure the safe transfer of data from legacy systems to the Universal Credit system as part of the managed migration process.
The DWP minister replied: “When undertaking the managed migration of claimants to Universal Credit, we will not migrate data from legacy systems to Universal Credit, but we will require the claimants or their respective appointee to make a new claim to UC.
“Appropriate Data Sharing agreements are in place with other Government Departments (HMRC) to ensure data is shared securely for processing Migration Notices and calculating the correct awards, including Transitional Protection.
“Within DWP, Data Protection Impact Assessments have been conducted by our Data Protection Team to ensure solutions in place are secure by design to adequately protect claimants’ data before, during and post processing.”
He added: “The claimant’s data will be stored in line with the DWP’s Data Retention Policy
“The Department is also developing mechanisms to securely automate the transfer of data from legacy systems for use in the managed migration process.”
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