The DWP is expecting to save £5 billion due to the high number of claimants who will fail to complete the forced migration from legacy benefits to universal credit. Claimants over sixty are proving especially lucrative for the DWP, with almost one third disappearing during the migration process. Citizens Advice has called for the DWP to investigate the high number of abandoned claims and improve the support offered to people forced to migrate.
The government announced last week that the compulsory migration of income-related employment and support allowance (irESA) claimants will happen three years sooner than previously intended. This is the second change to the proposed timetable, after the move was postponed until 2028.
The DWP have now said that all migration notices will be sent by the end of December 2025.
Whilst this could change following a general election, there is a strong possibility that the DWP will already have started implementing the new timetable by the time of the next parliament and it will still go ahead.
Following the announcement Citizens Advice (CA), who run the UC Help To Claim (HTC) service on behalf of the DWP have sounded the alarm about the process.
They point out that around 25% of people who are migrated fail to complete their claim for UC.
The non-claim rate rises according to age. According to CA, the failure rate is:
- 20% for people in their thirties
- 22% for people in their forties
- 27% for people in their fifties
- 32% for people in their sixties or over
This is a much higher rate than expected and has led the DWP to alter its financial forecasts to show savings of £5 billion between 2024 and 2029 as a result of people missing out on benefits they are entitled to. Because the migration dates have now been brought forward, this saving is likely to be made even more quickly.
CA point out that the DWP do not currently understand why the non-claim rate is so high, but CA believe that many claimants “have higher levels of practical and emotional support needs — but the managed migration process isn’t meeting these needs”.
One of the major problems for older claimants especially, may be a lack of access to online services.
CA believes irESA claimants are a “potentially highly vulnerable group” and that it is essential that better safeguards are in place and that the government develops a full understanding of why some people fail to claim UC.
In particular, CA say that “independent advice on a face-to-face basis should be made available to all claimants: HTC is currently only funded to provide advice by phone and online.”
But with such vast amounts of money to be saved, the DWP is unlikely to show any enthusiasm for finding out why claims are abandoned or to be keen on giving additional support to vulnerable claimants.
We know some readers will prefer to wait until they get a migration notice before worrying about the transfer process.
But we also know that others want to start learning more and making preparations as soon as they can, as a way of dealing with anxiety over the move.
Members can download our 28 page document “ESA to UC - A guide to migration” which explains the process for migrating to UC and what you can do now to prepare for managed migration.
You can read CA’s blog post “Our 5 concerns about migrating people to Universal Credit” here.
