Universal Credit

(asked on 9th April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Written Statement of 12 March on Universal Credit, HCWS1399, whether a person's legacy benefits could be terminated if they have not made a claim for universal credit during the course of the pilot.


Answered by
Alok Sharma Portrait
Alok Sharma
COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 15th April 2019

We do not intend to stop anyone’s benefit during the pilot. In the pilot phase, our intention is to learn how to effectively assist people onto Universal Credit and to develop processes to deliver that help. This is particularly important for vulnerable and hard-to-reach claimants, who the Department will help to move across to the new system. We are piloting this approach precisely to learn how we can contact and support people to move to Universal Credit without ending their legacy entitlement.

Through the pilot process we will work to understand the reasons for unsuccessful applications. However, there will be safeguards in place to protect those who might otherwise fail to make a successful claim.

We will report on our findings from the pilot before bringing forward legislation to extend this process.

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