Over a quarter of all the households sent a universal credit (UC) mandatory migration notice up to May 2024 failed to make a claim and had their legacy benefits stopped, according to figures released by the DWP this week. There are concerns about the time lag between claims failing and the release of statistics.

According to the managed migration statistics, between July 2022 and May 2024:

Individuals

migration notices sent  1,044,096

number claimed UC  735,159    

percentage claimed UC  70%

not claimed & legacy benefits closed  307,217

percentage not claimed and legacy benefits closed  29%

Households

migration notices sent  708,091

number claimed UC  516,108

percentage claimed UC  73%

not claimed & legacy benefits closed  190,727

percentage not claimed and legacy benefits closed  27%

The DWP stress that “the majority of migration notices had been sent to tax credit households whose likelihood of claiming UC and receiving transitional protection may be different from DWP legacy benefit customers.”

In other words, the percentage of ESA claims that fail may be different to the percentage of claims that have failed so far.  The DWP are clearly implying that they may be lower, but the reality is that nobody knows because, if any research has been done, it has not been published.

And even ongoing statistics like these may fail to raise any alarms until far too late.

This is because a claim is only recorded as failed after allowing for a three month claim period and an additional month in which transitional protection would be considered if a claim was completed in this period.  This means there is a four month time lag, plus the time needed to compile, check and publish the statistics.

According to the DWP, the majority of of ESA claimants will be transferred between the beginning of February 2025 and the end of November 2025.

But the first statistics may not be available until June or, more probably, July 2025.  If they show a significant failure rate, by the time the DWP establish the cause and attempt to remedy it, it is likely that the migration will be virtually over.

It demonstrates, yet again, how unreasonable this headlong rush to migrate ESA claimants to UC really is.

Readers can contact the free Help To Claim service here and members can download our 50 page guide to “Successful ESA to UC Managed Migration”, from the ESA/UC Guides page.

If you have begun or completed your mandatory migration, please share your experience with other readers here.

 

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  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 1 days ago
    Disgusted by DWP - they are heartless bunch of B**tard
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 1 days ago
    What worries me is my letter going missing, what will happen then?
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 22 hours ago
      @Alex From what I've heard they send a follow up letter and a text (if they already have your number obviously) so a few attempts are made. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 1 days ago
    I wonder how many people have not realised that they were due TP. An ex of mine didn't bother because she's self-employed and because of the MIF she's not eligible for UC. She was told she wasn't due anything so closed her tax credits and didn't claim UC. At no point did anyone tell she she should have had TP.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 1 days ago
    This has to be planned, they think by doing this so quickly in this unnecessary fashion that a significant percentage will drop out. And it has worked. 

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