A £15 million funding boost to the Help to Claim scheme will support thousands of people moving from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to Universal Credit, the Department for Work and Pensions has announced today [Tuesday 12 November].
The cash injection will support the free and independent advice delivered by Citizens Advice, in partnership with Citizens Advice Scotland, which has supported over one million people making a claim to Universal Credit since the programme launched in 2019.
The additional funding follows an announcement at Budget bringing forward benefit reform with more than 800,000 people on the old ESA benefit moving to Universal Credit by March 2026 instead of 2028.
The acceleration will bring more people into a modern benefit regime, continuing to ensure they are supported to look for and move into work, and comes ahead of the Get Britain Working White Paper – set to be unveiled later this Autumn.
Help to Claim’s trained advisers provide help and support to anyone making a new Universal Credit claim, including people moving from a legacy benefit, and offer support up to their first correct payment. The advisers offer guidance on how Universal Credit works, how much you will get, collecting relevant evidence, and helping people complete the application.
