Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether people moving from legacy benefits to Universal Credit will be subject to a hard stop to their benefit payments.

The Universal Credit (Managed Migration) 2018 regulations which have been laid before Parliament for approval contain our proposed measures for the managed migration of claimants on legacy benefits to Universal Credit. These include:

• Notifying claimants that they need to move to Universal Credit, and giving them a minimum of three months to make their claim. They can submit their application at any point during this period and will receive reminders if they have not done so, as the end of this period approaches;
• Having unlimited flexibility to extend the period of time a claimant has to make a Universal Credit claim if there is a good reason;
• The automatic backdating of all claims made once the above period has ended, if a Universal Credit claim is made within one calendar month after this. Transitional protection will also be applied to the Universal Credit award.

Our objective is to ensure that all legacy benefit claimants migrate safely across to Universal Credit and to that end we will also:

• have a lengthy period of careful and robust testing before we move to scale;
• work closely with a large and diverse group of stakeholders to design the process so that we can draw on their insight and experience;
• be producing guidance for work coaches and case managers to identify and protect vulnerable claimants.