UC by 2024

Pdman

There is a new policy paper from DWP, on gov.uk, stating that they plan to migrate all existing claimants to UC by 2024.

poppy12345

That's the plan yes. Whether it's achievable remains to be seen.

calcotti

That's been the official position for some time and they are now running radio advertising encouraging people to consider switching early because they may be better off. The adverts include a warning to check first but of course DWP cannot advise so people need to get advice from an advice agency or use online calculators and the latter has a risk of people inputting their situation incorrectly and being misled.

The policy paper referred to in the opening post is here
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/completing-the-move-to-universal-credit

The press release is here
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/managed-move-of-claimants-to-universal-credit-set-to-restart

Pdman

Press release from DWP says that the move to UC will resume on 9th May and be completed by the end of 2024.

tomtom256

I don't think it is realistic timescale looking at the planned office closures etc, currently happening.

Spoonie_Turtle

It has just dawned on me this is probably why DWP are promoting posts on social media about claiming UC.  The more people who do the claim themselves, the fewer they'll need to do in the managed migration, so the quicker (relatively!) they'll meet the target.

calcotti

Spoonie_Turtle said:

It has just dawned on me this is probably why DWP are promoting posts on social media about claiming UC.  The more people who do the claim themselves, the fewer they'll need to do in the managed migration, so the quicker (relatively!) they'll meet the target.

Undoubtedly.

sammyjammy

I think its probably doable if they get it right of course, remember how many additional new claims there will have been in the last couple of years due to COVID and the changes they made.

NedS

I think it's manageable in two and a half years, but they need to be organised and keep the claims flowing at a steady rate. It's no good dumping thousands of claims on a Jobcentre in the last 3 months - they need to flow through the system evenly from day 1 so they don't have to cope with large volumes. A large percentage of these claims, rightly or wrongly, have already migrated due to covid. Presumably they will write to claimants and advise them their legacy benefit(s) will end in 3 months and by that date they must make a claim for UC.

Spoonie_Turtle said:

It has just dawned on me this is probably why DWP are promoting posts on social media about claiming UC.  The more people who do the claim themselves, the fewer they'll need to do in the managed migration, so the quicker (relatively!) they'll meet the target.

Despite all the publicity I'm guessing there will still be claimants who only claim Tax Credits or Housing benefit and are still unaware.The number of JSA legacy claimants should really be rather small by now, maybe less so for IB-ESA.

calcotti

NedS said: The number of JSA legacy claimants should really be rather small by now, maybe less so for IB-ESA.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statistics-february-2022/dwp-benefits-statistics-february-2022

In the year to August 2021:

• Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 59% to 140,000 claimants

• Employment and Support Allowance is at 1.8 million claimants

• Income Support fell to 220,000 claimants

At November 2021, there were 2.7 million recipients of HB.

Of the 1.8 million ESA claimants:

• 1.5 million are in the Support group

• 190,000 are in the Work-Related Activity group

• 71,000 are in the Assessment phase

• 720,000 ESA claimants are former IB cases who have been migrated

Over recent years, the number of ESA claims has been decreasing because UC has replaced ESA for new income-related claims on the grounds of incapacity. Over the last year, the number of people claiming ESA has decreased by 5.4% (100,000).

Unfortunately It isn’t clear what proportion of the ESA statistics may be new style ESA claimants.

Sparkleon

I am currently a student on the legacy system. If I moved over to UC, even with working part time alongside uni, I'd be £500 a month worse off as they take my maintenance loans £1 for £1... despite me having to pay it back with interest.