The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is in the process of moving legacy benefit claimants onto universal credit (UC) through managed migration. Gradually, claimants are being selected for managed migration and are sent a ‘migration notice’ informing them that they have three months to claim UC, after which their legacy benefits payments will be terminated.
The DWP is on course to send out over 500,000 migration notices to tax credit-only claimants by April 2024 and many people will transition to UC without the need for assistance. But managed migration is about to expand to DWP legacy benefit claimants – a much more vulnerable cohort – and a process that works for ‘most’ people will not be sufficient.
The stakes are much higher for these claimants as benefits will be their primary, often sole, source of income. Those who do not successfully move to UC may find themselves without any financial support at all – at risk of destitution or threatened with homelessness. While many will eventually manage to make a claim for UC, they will have lost their entitlement to transitional protection and had to cope without benefit income in the interim, facing mounting debts or rent arrears.
Most concerningly, some claimants may fall out of the social security system altogether. Situations like this could be avoided but, as things stand, the most vulnerable claimants are at the greatest risk in the face of the DWP’s plans for a sprint finish.
