Universal Credit

(asked on 17th October 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the managed migration of claimants to universal credit will (a) include a roll-out schedule and (b) allow for (i) pauses and (ii) reviews to ensure that the system is ready to manage the projected number of claimants.


Answered by
Alok Sharma Portrait
Alok Sharma
COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 26th October 2018

Managed migration will begin in 2019, with small-scale testing of up to 10,000 claimants to ensure our process works well before the volume of migration increases. We are engaging closely with stakeholders to build safeguards to ensure that all claimants and particularly the most vulnerable are fully supported through the migration process.

The draft regulations have been out for consultation with the Social Security Advisory Committee and we are currently considering their advice alongside the contributions we have received from other stakeholders. These regulations will come before Parliament this autumn and they will be accompanied by our response to the Social Security Advisory Committee’s Report.

The regulations are essential to ensuring that everyone moving onto Universal Credit, having had no change in their circumstances, receives transitional protection. The regulations also provide additional protection to claimants receiving a Severe Disability Premium, to ensure they are not moved onto Universal Credit ahead of managed migration, and to provide financial protection to those claimants who have already moved over.

Additionally, in the legacy system there are £2.4bn of unclaimed benefits not taken up by people who need them, because they do not know about them. These regulations will ensure that 700,000 more people will get paid their full entitlement under Universal Credit.

Reticulating Splines