15 May 2024 , 09:50
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Households claiming legacy benefits have been issued a warning as 180,000 have had their payments stopped.
New Government figures revealed that 180,120 benefit claimants had their claims closed after failing to move to Universal Credit. This is an increase with the percentage of people losing their benefits rising to 39% from 25% in July last year. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) says the increase is "truly alarming". They also claimed that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was ignoring "strong warnings" on the issue.
The benefits department is currently working to move around two million people claiming older legacy benefits onto Universal Credit. The process is called "Managed Migration". People claiming six legacy benefits are being moved over and these include Housing Benefit, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, and Child Tax Credit.
The DWP is currently working to move those claiming Tax Credits over and plans to target those claiming Jobseekers Allowance later this year. Each group of claimants receive a letter - called a migration notice - and once getting this they have three months to put in a claim for Universal Credit. If they don't their legacy benefit claim will stop. The Child Poverty Action Group says despite the exceptionally high "no-claim" rate, the department plans to proceed rapidly.
Since March 2024, the DWP has sent nearly 824,050 migration notices. Some 400,940 individuals have since made successful claims for Universal Credit, and another 238,990 are still in the process of transitioning. Chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham said: "Claimants are losing money they need while the DWP buries its head in the sand.
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"The department must slow down the managed migration to UC and put in place robust support mechanisms that will enable people to move safely to Universal Credit. Without action from the DWP this is a disaster in-the-making."
A report published by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in April, raised the alarm over the risk of vulnerable claimants losing benefits saying: “If the transition from legacy benefits to UC fails even an apparently small proportion of people, it will lead to real world misery for thousands. The DWP must make sure that people are not cast into financial hardship due to a bureaucratic change, and that robust support is in place for those vulnerable claimants who need it most.”*
Alongside this, a report in February by the Audit Office warned that the DWP had little evidence to show that people are making informed decisions when they don’t migrate to Universal Credit. It said: "DWP is on track to move legacy benefit claimants to Universal Credit. But it needs to be sure people who have not switched to Universal Credit are receiving the benefits to which they are entitled.”