Statistics released this week by the DWP show that 32% of all claimants sent a universal credit (UC) migration notice up to the end of February 2024 failed to make a successful claim and had their legacy benefits terminated.
In total, a shocking 284,660 individuals did not make a valid claim and had their benefits stopped.
The DWP are quick to point out that “households who have been sent a migration notice to date may not be representative of the complete population who will be sent a migration notice” because the majority are tax credit households.
The reality is, however, that the DWP have no idea whether the number of people who will disappear from the system when it is income-related ESA claimants who are being transferred, will be smaller or even greater.
The department have not done any detailed research into why so many claimants are failing to migrate and it may well be that ESA claimants will face even greater barriers to claiming than tax credit claimants.
At the moment, Labour have still made no announcement as to whether they are going to postpone or slow down the forced migration of income-related ESA claimants to UC, due to start next month.
But the closer we get to the deadline to begin sending out migration notices, the more likely it seems that the move is going ahead.
