UC by 2024

poppy12345

Sparkleon said:

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. 

Student maintenence loans also affect other means tested benefits such as housing benefit, Income Related ESA/JSA/Income Support etc. I see from another thread you're claiming housing benefit, do they know you're receiving a student loan? Do you claim any other benefits?

sammyjammy

calcotti said:

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.

Would be interesting to know how many working age are claiming HB only, this will probably be the least informed group and the most impacted by the changes.

calcotti

sammyjammy said:

calcotti said:

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.

Would be interesting to know how many working age are claiming HB only, this will probably be the least informed group and the most impacted by the changes.

From the link

At November 2021, there were 2.7 million recipients of HB, a decrease of 270,000 on the last year. There were 1.1 million Pension Age and 1.6 million Working Age recipients. The number of Working Age recipients will continue to fall due to Universal Credit (UC). By comparison, 3.0 million households had a housing element as part of their UC assessment, of which 2.7 million were in payment.

Unfortunately we can't tell how many of these are claiming HB only.
Nor can we tell how many will lose HB anyway as they become Mixed Age Couples.

Sparkleon

poppy12345 said:

Sparkleon said:

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. 

Student maintenence loans also affect other means tested benefits such as housing benefit, Income Related ESA/JSA/Income Support etc. I see from another thread you're claiming housing benefit, do they know you're receiving a student loan? Do you claim any other benefits?

Yes they know. I don't get my full rent paid. Just around £20 a week paid towards. I only get child tax credits. I stopped claiming income support once I started university. 

TELLIT01

I certainly wouldn't put any money on a bet that the timescale will be met.  I retired from DWP in 2016 and "Transfer to UC should be completed within 2 years" was the management mantra then.  6 years later they are still saying exactly the same thing

arnoldy

"UC by 2024"

One positive is that at least the move will (marginally) simplify the byzantine complexity and breadth of the benefits system so that claimants know what they are entitled to without a PhD in the benefits system, and taxpayers to know what they are paying for.

kaMelo

TELLIT01 said:

I certainly wouldn't put any money on a bet that the timescale will be met.  I retired from DWP in 2016 and "Transfer to UC should be completed within 2 years" was the management mantra then.  6 years later they are still saying exactly the same thing

On a technical level the pandemic showed the system coped with a large increase in claimants, albeit without the usual checking procedures, but it worked as intended. There is also a political aspect to consider too and with enough political will anything can be pushed through. The next general election is due in December 2024, to have the migration completed would be something to show to the electorate they are an effective Government getting on with the job so vote for us, "Got UC Done" so as to speak. 
With that in mind I would say it's more likely than not that it will happen.

sammyjammy

There has been a lot of recruitment in DWP since the beginning of the pandemic, as time moves on those staff can be hopefully be moved into other areas to shore up support for migration although if Jacob Rees Mog gets his way there'll be no civil servants left as we are such a scourge on society!

Sweepy2013

Sparkleon said:

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. 

Remember, if you will be worse off on UC, the amount you receive on legacy benefits is protected, so that if you are migrated onto UC ( by force, as it were, and not by choice or through a change in circumstances), your UC payment should be topped up to the amount you received when on Tax Credits. I'm not sure for how long you get the top up though...

Sweepy2013

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.

Plus the more people who opt to do the claim themselves, and therefore not included in the managed migration plan, the fewer people they'll need to provide a 'top-up' payment for, for those who will be worse off on UC 😐