Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the paper entitled Completing the move to Universal Credit: Learning from the Discovery Phase, published by his Department on 10 January 2023, whether his Department has taken steps to support legacy benefit claimants who did not make a claim for Universal Credit within three months of their migration notice and had their existing entitlement terminated without a replacement income being in place.

The Department has provided significant support to claimants as part of the Discovery Phase of the Universal Credit Programme.

For the Discovery cohorts, claimants were granted an automatic one-month extension to their deadline date. If a claimant did not claim by their extended deadline, they were notified that their current benefit(s) would be terminated unless they had significant support needs requiring a further extension.

To encourage and support claimants to claim Universal Credit, the Department sent text messages and phone calls during the one-month extension period. Where appropriate, the Department provided enhanced support, including home visits, to engage claimants face-to-face.

For those claimants who require significant support, the Department holds case conferences with local Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders who provide local expertise, working with different organisations to take a multi-agency approach to supporting our most vulnerable claimants.

For claimants who have their benefits terminated, if they then make a claim to UC within one month of their benefit(s) being terminated, their claim is then backdated to their deadline date and they will still receive Transitional Protection where entitled.