This is the latest in our series of reports on the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) managed migration programme, where people are moving from older benefits to universal credit (UC).
The report covers and makes recommendations on:
- progress to date, and what the numbers don’t show about ‘successful claims’
- the (lack of) information available to claimants to help them make their claim
- the tax credits cliff edge (tax credits are due to close in April 2025).
It also introduces the experiences of four people going through managed migration, and the challenges they are facing.
The DWP should slow down the roll-out of managed migration to ensure that people moving to UC are being paid in full and on time, and that claimants are able to get the information and advice they need to cope with the change. But the DWP will also need to make contingency plans to ensure that payments can be made to tax credit recipients after April 2025. It could do this by amending the regulations, developing a process to make emergency payments or automatically transferring any remaining claimants to UC.